Murder trial halts over legal argument

Trial has heard Romanian teenager disappeared from city centre and when she was found had four bullet wounds to her head

The jury in the trial of the man charged with murdering teenager Marioara Rostas is not expected to return to court until Tuesday, while all sides deal with a legal issue.

The Central Criminal Court trial went into legal argument on Monday and the jury had been expected to return yesterday.

Alan Wilson (35) of New Street Gardens in Dublin has pleaded not guilty to the 18-year-old’s murder at a house on Brabazon Street, The Coombe, in Dublin, between January 7th and January 8th, 2008.

The trial has heard that the Romanian teenager disappeared from Dublin city centre on the afternoon of January 6th and that her body was found in a shallow grave on the Wicklow border four years later. She had four bullet wounds to her head.

READ SOME MORE

Missing

The jury heard on Monday that she phoned her brother in Romania the day after she went missing, asking for her “daddy to come get her”.

Alexandru Rostas testified his sister was crying and seemed frightened. She told him she was out of town and to “tell Dad to go after her”.

She said she had 50 cent to talk on the phone and that a boy had dropped her off 200km from Dublin. She said she could see a little sign and started to tell him about some of the letters on it, but the phone was then cut off.

The trial is to resume next week before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and the jury of 10 men and two women.