'They played the system and tried to play you': key witnesses in Ruth Lawrence murder trial are untrustworthy, defence says

"they played the system and they tried to play you"

"Defence counsel Patrick Gageby SC urged the jurors in his closing address not to convict the 46-year-old Dublin woman, calling the foundations of the State's case "shaky" and describing it as the "slimmest of prosecution cases"."

""Too slim to justify a conviction," he told the panel."

Two protected witnesses portrayed themselves as 'innocents abroad' and downplayed their own roles in events connected to two men's deaths. Defence counsel Patrick Gageby SC told jurors the witnesses cannot be trusted to secure a conviction of 46-year-old Dublin woman Ruth Lawrence. He accused the witnesses of having 'played the system' and of attempting to mislead the jury. He characterised the State's case as having 'shaky' foundations and called it the 'slimmest of prosecution cases.' He urged the jury in his closing address not to convict, saying the evidence was 'too slim to justify a conviction.'

Read at Independent