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The coroner at the Stardust inquests has outlined the five verdicts that are open to the jury as the almost year-long proceedings move closer to conclusion.
This morning, the coroner Dr Myra Cullinane said for the jurors to return a verdict of unlawful killing, then the standard of proof needed was “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
She said there were five possible verdicts available to them – accidental death, death by misadventure, unlawful killing, open verdict and narrative verdict.
A total of 48 people lost their lives in the 1981 St Valentine’s Day fire at the Artane nightclub.
The victims were aged between 16 and 27.
Dr Cullinane said the jury must consider all of the evidence heard to reach their determinations and said what to accept or reject was a matter for them.
She also said she was reminding the jurors that the proceedings are inquisitorial, with the purpose to inquire into a given death and to establish certain facts and to return a verdict based on the evidence heard.
She said it was a fact finding exercise and not a trial.
The jury was also told that are legal rules surrounding such hearings and that the members of the jury were strictly bound by them.
Referring to the Coroner’s Act, she said civil or criminal liability shall not be considered or investigated and said the “language is clear” – the jurors cannot investigate or consider whether any person is liable or responsible for a given death.
She said too they cannot conclude that a person committed a crime or is guilty of negligence.
Jury told: ‘This is not a trial’
She also said the Act states that no finding or verdict shall contain censure of exoneration of any person.
Dr Cullinane said the findings must be factual in nature and not blame anybody.
The coroner went on to explain what each of these verdicts entailed and said the standard of proof for retuning a verdict of unlawful killing was “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
She said in an unlawful killing scenario, nobody can be blamed or held responsible for the deaths and repeated that “this is not a trial”.
Dr Cullinane said while there is no perfect definition of “beyond a reasonable doubt,” it has taken as a high degree of certainty, but does not require absolute certainty, but that they must have no significant doubt that prevents them from being sure that that decision is the correct one.
She said no person can be identified or identifiable as being responsible for the deaths.
The coroner said in plain terms, the verdicts and findings were about acts and omissions and not about who may have carried them out.
Coroner’s charge expected to conclude
She also said the jury would be asked about each individual death, and asked to record their identity, when and where the death occurred, and how the death occurred.
It is expected Dr Cullinane’s charge may conclude today with the jury deliberations expected to start next week.
Most of the victims of the fire were from the surrounding area in Artane.
The proceedings, which are taking place in the Pillar Room on the grounds of the Rotunda Hospital, have sat for more than 100 days and heard evidence from 370 witnesses including former staff, survivors, emergency responders and fire experts.
The fresh inquests began last April after a lengthy campaign by relatives.
In 2019, then-attorney general Seamus Woulfe directed that they be held, saying there had been an insufficiency of inquiry at the original 1982 inquests into how the deaths occurred.
A number of the families were in court today.
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