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Jury fails to reach verdict in Longford murder trial

A jury has failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a man accused of murdering another man in Co...
Newstalk
Newstalk

16.47 5 Mar 2018


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Jury fails to reach verdict in...

Jury fails to reach verdict in Longford murder trial

Newstalk
Newstalk

16.47 5 Mar 2018


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A jury has failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a man accused of murdering another man in Co Longford.

25-year-old Rihards Lavickis of Annaly Court in Longford admitted stabbing Akadiusz or Arek Czajkowski at Townspark in November 2016.

He said he went looking for him with a knife and wanted to frighten him, but didn’t mean to kill him.

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The trial heard that both the accused and the deceased were low level drug dealers.

Mr Lavickis claimed the deceased had beaten him with a knuckle duster several months before the stabbing over a €300 drug debt.

He also claimed the deceased had chased him the night before the fatal encounter and he woke the following morning to find his front window was smashed - and believed Arek was responsible.

Rihards Lavickis pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter, but that was not accepted by the State.

After four hours of deliberations, the jurors said they couldn’t reach a unanimous or majority verdict over whether it was murder or manslaughter and they didn’t feel any more time would help.

The judge told them to write disagreement on the issue paper and said there may be a retrial - saying it was a matter for the DPP.


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