Child cruelty trial collapses after video link evidence lost
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The trial of a woman accused of cruelty and neglect towards her eight children fell apart because video link evidence was not recorded, The Irish Times reports.
The woman, who cannot be named, was on trial in Galway Circuit Criminal Court in connection with child cruelty offences including assault, ill-treatment, neglect or abandonment of her children between September 2006-May 2011.
Shane Costelloe SC, prosecuting, advised jurors that some of the children would give video link evidence from a separate room in Galway Court House.
Some of the other children gave evidence in pre-recorded video interviews with trained gardaí.
However, the trial ended after Judge Karen O’Connor discovered late on Wednesday evening that video link evidence had not been recorded, despite a legal obligation on the court to do so.
Judge O’Connor said she had no alternative but to discharge the jury “with regret”.
A new trial will begin on 12 January 2016.
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