A judge has directed a jury to acquit a 27-year-old man on trial for the murder of Daniel McAnaspie, the teenager who died while in the care of the state.
Richard Dekker of Whitestown Avenue in Blanchardstown was accused of killing the 17-year-old at Tolka Valley Park on February 26th in 2010.
His co-accused Trevor Noone (25) of the same address is facing a re-trial on the murder charge.
Mr. Justice Paul Butler discharged the jury and gave the order to acquit Mr. Dekker this afternoon on the basis that there was insufficient evidence against him for the case to continue. His decision followed legal argument at the end of the prosecution’s case.
During the trial at the Central Criminal Court, the jury was shown recordings of lifelong friends Trevor Noone and Richard Dekker being questioned by gardai.
In these interviews both men blamed the other for the fatal stabbing of the 17-year-old.
There was prosecution evidence the teenager may have been attacked with half of a garden shears having been tricked into going to Tolka Valley Park.
The court heard he was last seen in the company of the two accused men after a night out in Blanchardstown. His body was found in a ditch in a farm in Co. Meath 3 months after his disappearance.
Pictured above is Daniel McAnaspie
