A Co Armagh man, who had been accused of trying to decapitate another man, was today acquitted of murder just after the jury was sworn in.
Jamie Gollogly, with an address of Rockview Crescent in Belleeks, was stood in the dock at Newry Crown Court ready to stand trial for two charges of attempted murder.
The 30-year-old was also facing single charges of aggravated burglary, criminal damage and possessing a weapon, namely a hatchet, all alleged to have been committed on June 1, 2022.
However, despite the jury having been sworn in on Monday morning, by the afternoon the directive to acquit Gollogly was given by His Honour Judge Paul Ramsey KC.
Prosecuting KC David Russell said that due to “developments” since the PPS decided to proceed to trial, the Crown now intended “to offer no evidence in the case”.
Addressing the jury, Judge Ramsey said: “I will be directing you to find verdicts of not guilty by direction.”
Judge Ramsey thanked the jury for their brief service in the case and told Gollogly he was free to leave the court.
Although the facts of the case were not opened today, when Gollogly was initially charged the court heard how two men were attacked with hatchets in an “extremely violent” incident linked to a “tit-for-tat… ongoing feud”.
The court also heard that, according to treating medics, the assailants had tried to decapitate one of the victims who was left with a fractured skull and a 12cm laceration to the back of his neck.
According to the police case, the victims were asleep in a mobile home on the Moorhill Road in Newry when two masked and hooded men, armed with hatchets, smashed their way in and attacked them.
A brother of one of the victims told cops he heard a disturbance outside his house and that, when he went to investigate, he saw the two men leaving and running to a waiting car, which sped off with the “wheels spinning”.
DC Glenn said a car was found on fire two miles away a short time later, adding that Gollogly was arrested at his home after both victims named him as one of the attackers.
When cops arrived at the address, “officers noted a strong smell of bleach”, “remnants of a fire” smouldering in the grate and spotted a “small spot of blood”, which had been sent for forensic analysis.
The officer said the victim who suffered the attempted decapitation had also sustained a fractured skull, a punctured lung and “significant damage to the bones in his left hand”.
The other victim had sustained what he said were “life-changing injuries”, including a fractured skull, two punctured lungs and “severe lacerations… caused by a bladed instrument”.
“This was a deliberate, targeted and violent attack on the victims, resulting in extreme injuries that are life-threatening,” said the officer.
“Essentially we believe it’s linked to an going feud between gangs in Newry.”
The detective said police believed the hatchet attack was linked to an incident the preceding month, when an associate of Gollogly had acid thrown over him, and also to a shooting in Newry in January.
Having checked the jury foreperson had signed to record not guilty verdicts, Judge Ramsey told Gollogly: “You are free to leave the dock.”
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