Jury dismissed after 'short' assault trial
The jury have been dismissed from the trial.
A jury has been dismissed after failing to come to a verdict during a three-day trial in Waterford.
A man was on trial at Waterford Circuit Court after being accused of assaulting a woman with a kitchen knife at his flat.
Getachew Tela (40), of 12 Broad Street, Waterford, was charged with assault contrary to Section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act and production of a kitchen knife contrary to Section 11 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act.
A jury of seven men and five women heard evidence from the complainant and two members of An Garda Síochána.
On the evening of February 5, 2023, Gardaí were called to Tela’s residence at an apartment on Broad Street at around 8pm. Garda Jason Cullen was met with the complainant who was in a distressed state. She alleged that Tela had held a knife up to her neck and cut into her skin.
Tela was arrested and conveyed to Tramore Garda Station. In Garda interviews he claimed that the woman had thrown a drink on him as he lay in bed and threatened him with the kitchen knife. He said: “She put the knife on her own neck. She’s a psychopath.”
The woman was called as the first witness for the trial. She told the Court that earlier in the day she had been drinking on The Quay with friends. She claimed that she had "5 or 6 beers" and some vodka. Defence counsel Gareth Hayden BL asked: “Would it be fair to say that vodka doesn’t agree with you?” She replied: “No, I can handle my vodka.” She said she had "maybe a naggin" on the day. The woman returned to the flat on Broad Street with her friends who she said left "before anything started".
Mr Hayden suggested to the woman that the accused went to lie down in the bedroom when she threw a drink at him and threatened him with a kitchen knife.
She said: “I surely did not. I got sliced.” Mr Hayden asked her if she had ever harmed herself in the past, to which she agreed but said she self-harmed with a razor, not a knife.
She said she cut herself with a blade a few months ago.
Mr Hayden said: “I am genuinely sorry to hear that.” The woman said that she was "sobering up" when the Gardai arrived to the apartment.
During closing speeches, both the prosecution and defence made their final case to the jury.
State Prosecutor Dylan Redmond BL told the jury that the “right and proper” verdicts are guilty ones.
He acknowledged, however, the witness’s “unusual” demeanour during examination.
He said that she has “vulnerabilities” and asserted that any hesitance she showed during examination was because she was a victim of domestic violence.
He asked the jury to consider if the woman would be capable of “long-term, cold and calculated falsehoods.” “It couldn’t be the case,” he said.
Mr. Redmond concluded: “There was a time when people in Ireland believed that when women showed up to a Garda station with black eyes that they had walked into doors. These times are finished.” Defence counsel for Mr. Tela, Gareth Hayden BL, warned the jury about handing down a guilty verdict and questioned the honesty of the witness.
He said to the jury: “Just because someone takes an oath it doesn’t mean you have to believe everything that comes out of their mouth.” He added that elements of the witness’s evidence were “self-serving”.
In relation to the witness leaving the courtroom during examination, Mr. Hayden said that she “didn’t want to answer difficult questions” and so she “stormed out of court".
Mr. Hayden outlined to the jury that there was no evidence of restraint or defensive wounds from the alleged attack, nor was there any evidence of the witness’s arms, wrists or hair being held.
“This is a hugely significant aspect of the case,” he said Mr. Hayden described the witness as “not credible or believable” and “not capable of being believed or relied upon.”
Following the closing speeches, the jury left to determine a verdict.
They returned approximately two hours later requesting to listen back to the audio recording of the injured party’s evidence.
Judge Eugene O’Kelly permitted the request and asked that a majority decision be made instead of a unanimous one.
After approximately four hours of deliberation, the jury informed Judge O’Kelly that they were in disagreement over a verdict.
The jury were dismissed.
The matter will now go into next week, and the DPP will decide whether a retrial will take place with a new jury.
