The jury hearing the trial of a man accused of shooting another man dead at Bray Boxing Club has been asked for a second time if they can sit on beyond the scheduled end-date.
The trial of Gerard Cervi (34) had initially been expected to take eight weeks, ending last week. Two jurors were unable to continue when the end date was put back to September and on Monday, the start of the ninth week of the trial, Mr Justice Michael White at the Central Criminal Court asked the remaining seven women and three men if they could sit until a new date of October 22nd.
Nine of the jurors said they would continue but one has a potential difficulty and will tell the court on Tuesday if they can continue. Mr Justice White said he will not “force or coerce” anyone to sit for the extended period. He said if the juror can’t continue the court will have to deal with the consequences.
Evidence
Mr Justice White also thanked the jurors for their public service and said there have been 26 days of evidence or legal argument in their absence since the trial began on June 29th. He offered his “sincere and humble apologies” for the “very bad underestimation” of how long the trial would last.
Mr Cervi, from the East Wall area in Dublin 3, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Bobby Messett (50) at Bray Boxing Club, Bray Harbour, Bray, Co Wicklow, on June 5th, 2018. He also denies the attempted murder of boxing trainer Peter Taylor and Ian Britton on the same date and location.