Aaron Connolly

The Central Criminal Court jury of seven women and five men returned their verdict this afternoon on what was their third day of deliberations in the case.

Mr Bowman told the jury: "The law says the mere fact that the defendant lies is not evidence enough. He said people had lied about drug and alcohol use in a murder trial because they were afraid. He said lies are the subject of “grey areas” but science tells the truth. The murder trial also heard evidence from Jack Conway, who said he and Aaron Connolly had sexual relations on a number of occasions when they were teenagers. “All of these features are in keeping with the application of external pressure on the neck. The group then went to a local takeaway to get food shortly after midnight before moving away at 12.40am.

Aaron Connolly (22) of Willistown, Drumcar had denied murdering the teenager in 2018.

Mr. The court heard that Mr. Reilly and Mr.

DKIT student Cameron Reilly had been out socialising with friends on the night of May 25th, 2018 at a field just outside the town.

Mr Bowman told the jury: "The law says the mere fact that the defendant lies is not evidence enough. He said people had lied about drug and alcohol use in a murder trial because they were afraid. He said lies are the subject of “grey areas” but science tells the truth. This was the cause of death,” she said. The group then went to a local takeaway to get food shortly after midnight before moving away at 12.40am. Friends of Mr Reilly told the trial a group of around 15 young people gathered in the field on the night and alcohol and cannabis were consumed.

Cameron Reilly said goodbye to his grandmother on what should have been an ordinary Friday afternoon in May and headed out with friends. It was the la...

He said everything Aaron Connolly had said, from the moment he and Cameron Reilly left the rest of the group, was “self-serving nonsense”. The young man said he and Mr Connolly were again intimate when they met in a field “a while after”. He pointed out that many of the young people on the night had lied for one reason or another. She said that an examination of the inside front of the tracksuit bottoms worn by Mr Connolly showed a mixed DNA sample of Mr Reilly and Mr Connolly. She said the alcohol was being actively metabolised at the time of death. She said the cause of death was asphyxia due to external pressure on the neck with no other contributing factors. He said the teenager was lying on his back and there was “discolouring and bruising” on the right-hand side of the face, neck and throat. In his initial statement to gardaí, Connolly said he had been drunk on the night but “knew what I was at”. Connolly did not accept that it was his DNA and said that the forensic report was wrong. She told prosecuting counsel Mr Kelly that on the night of May 25 she went to meet Cameron and a group of other friends at the field at around 7.30pm-8pm. “All of these features are in keeping with the application of external pressure on the neck. Ms McGuinness said the teenager had told her he was just on the site to “suss people out” because there would often be gossip about people locally who were “in the closet”.