Re-trial for Derry killing case

Stephen Cahoon's murder trial has made Irish and British legal history

The jury in the trial of a Londonderry man accused of murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend have failed to reach a verdict.

Stephen Cahoon, 37, from Harvey Street in the city, will now face a re-trail in the same court.

Cahoon admitted the manslaughter of Jean Quigley, but denied murdering the mother-of-four last year.

Ms Quigley's body was found at her home in Cornshell Fields in July 2008. She had been badly beaten and strangled.

The seven women and five men of the jury had been given the option of reaching a majority verdict of either murder or manslaughter following the two-and-a-half-week trial.

However, after almost eight hours deliberating, they told Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy they could not reach an agreement.

The judge told them to write "'disagree'" on the issue paper and discharged them from jury service for 10 years. The case was then put back into the court list.

The trial has made history as Mr Cahoon, who was arrested in Donegal, opted for trial in the Irish Republic.

He is the first person to face a southern jury for a non-terrorist related offence committed in Northern Ireland.

Jean Quigley's mother, who found her daughter's bruised body, broke down in tears and was comforted by her other four children as she left court.

She had discovered Jean lying in a pool of blood on her bed, naked apart from a pair of pink socks.

Mr Cahoon has said he was provoked into the killing, a defence which, if successful, can reduce a charge of murder to manslaughter.

Under the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act of 1976, suspects can be tried in the Republic for alleged offences committed in Britain or Northern Ireland.