Jury likely to consider verdict today in attempted murder trial

Saturday 04 March 2017

The jury is due to retire today to reach its verdict in the case of a scaffolder accused of sticking a knife into the neck of his close friend following a drunken argument.

Gerard Eamon Maguire (49) is accused of attempting to murder his friend of around seven years, Shaun Patrick Howard (63), at the victim's home. He denies the charge.

Yesterday Advocate David Steenson, prosecuting, claimed that Mr Maguire would not have told the Police, "he's lucky to be alive" and "He went for me first, he came off worse," after being arrested were he to be innocent.

He said that Mr Howard, "...liked the idea of being a mentoring figure to the younger Mr Maguire" - a man for whom he cooked, did laundry and was intending to teach to drive - and would not make up the allegations purely for the sake of compensation, as the jury had previously been told.

During his closing remarks, he painted the picture of a man who had, "...drunk himself into a state of rage" and "flipped" when he was asked to leave his alleged victim's house after a night of heavy drinking, watching football and playing cards.

He disputed the Defence's allegations that Mr Howard himself was the aggressor.

According to Advocate Steenson, such claims showed that the defendant was, "...making it up as he goes along". 

But Advocate Paul Nicholls, defending, said that Mr Howard was the one whose evidence was "shifting as the sands".

He said that Mr Howard's accounts given to the Police and in Court were "inconsistent", and that he was simply acting out a "fairly well-rehearsed scripted response" before the jury.

"This is a man who is very much prone to embellishment. At worst, he's telling lies," he argued.

Mr Maguire's attempt to wash his blood-soaked clothes at 03:00 following the incident - for which he denies a charge of perverting the course of justice - was no more than a natural reaction for a man who felt that he had done nothing wrong, he said. 

"Members of the jury, the only conclusion that can be properly drawn is that Mr Maguire is innocent of all three charges and must be acquitted," he concluded.

Former Bailiff Sir Michael Birt QC, presiding, will sum up this morning before the jury retire to reach their verdict.