The trial of a farmer accused of murdering his aunt following a long-running dispute over land has been adjourned for two weeks, after the senior barrister for the defence was nominated to become a judge.

Justice Caroline Biggs today (Wednesday, January 25) told the jury that due to the nomination of senior counsel Mícheál P. O’Higgins to the High Court bench, the accused man Michael Scott has lost his lead counsel.

She said that Michael Scott has found an alternative but the new lead counsel will need two weeks to read the papers and take instructions.

Trial delayed

Having gone away to consider matters, the jury agreed to make themselves available until May 31, and to return after the Easter break, if the trial goes beyond the expected time frame.

Justice Biggs said: “All I can say at this stage is to offer my wholehearted thanks on behalf of the parties and myself. This means that a complex trial can come to finality at some point.”

The trial will resume on February 7, but the jury will not be required until February 9, the judge said.

Michael Scott (58) of Gortanumera, Portumna, Co. Galway, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his aunt Christina ‘Chrissie’ Treacy outside her home in Derryhiney, Portumna on April 27, 2018.

It is the prosecution case that Scott deliberately ran over his aunt in an agricultural teleporter following a long-running dispute over land.

The jury has heard it is the defence case that her death was a “tragic accident”.

The trial began last week and was originally expected to take more than two months.

A 15-person jury consisting of seven men and eight women was sworn to hear the evidence.

By Eoin Reynolds