Jury in Quilligan murder trial ask for transcript of witnesses' evidence

The jury deliberating on the case against the second man accused of murdering 47-year-old Kieran Quilligan have asked to see the transcript of evidence of a couple who heard a row on the laneway where the deceased was last seen.

The jury also asked today to see a transcript of the evidence of Detective Garda Alan Crowley who found blood traces in the boot of the Toyota Rav 4, driven by Niall Long, which were later found to be a match for the DNA of Kieran Quilligan.

These transcripts were to be handed in to the ten men and two women of the jury to assist in their deliberations today at the Central Criminal Court, sitting in Cork.

The jury reached a unanimous verdict yesterday finding 33-year-old Niall Long, formerly of St Michael’s Close, Mahon, Cork, guilty of murder, that on a date between September 1 2023 and January 29 2024 at an unknown location within the state in the District Court area of Cork city he did murder Kieran Quilligan, 47, contrary to Common Law.

The prosecution case was that Niall Long had been robbed of his drugs and cash by the late Kieran Quilligan and another man when a drug deal went wrong, and that this robbery was the motive for what happened later that day, September 1 2023.

The jury is now deliberating on the case against 28-year-old Luke Taylor, formerly of Cherry Lawn, Blackrock, Cork, who faces the same charge of murdering Kieran Quilligan, a charge he denies.

In the course of evidence in the trial – now in its 13th day – the couple who lived near St Fin Barre’s Place heard men shouting and banging in the laneway at around 9.15pm on September 1 2023 and called the gardaí.