Accused won’t attend murder trial as he hires new counsel

STEPHEN PENROSE, who is accused of murdering a man whose decapitated body was found in a woodland in Co. Kildare, has declined to continue attending his trial and the case will proceed in his absence, the jury has been told.

The Central Criminal Court jury also heard yesterday that Mr Penrose, 38, who was representing himself in his murder trial, having dismissed his legal team, has now hired new lawyers.

Mr Penrose, of Newtown Court, Malahide Road, Coolock, Dublin 17, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Philip Finnegan, 24, at Rahin Woods, Edenderry, Co. Kildare, on August 10, 2016.

Judge Alexander Owens informed the jury yesterday that Mr Penrose was now represented by a new legal team. The court heard that Mr Michael French is appointed as the accused’s solicitor and Mr Anthony Sammon SC alongside Mr Eoghan Weldon BL are representing him.

‘He is not going to be physically present’

The judge also told the jurors today that Mr Penrose had declined to attend his trial ‘in person’ and proceedings would continue without him. ‘He is not going to be physically present,’ he added.

Last Friday, Judge Owens warned Mr Penrose that he would be banned from participating in his own trial if he continued to ‘abuse’ and ‘ballyrag’ witnesses.

The judge said he would not allow his courtroom to become ‘a circus’ after Mr Penrose accused a Garda Inspector, who he was crossexamining, of lying under oath.

‘He is telling b ******* about me,’ Mr Penrose shouted in the courtroom last week, before demanding that the witness be ‘dismissed’.

In his opening address, prosecuting barrister Brendan Grehan SC said that Mr Finnegan’s decapitated body was found buried in a shallow grave in a Kildare woods. The lawyer also told the jury that attempts had been made to cut up and burn the body of Mr Finnegan, who had been missing for almost a month.

The trial continues today.