Evidence from the prosecution's "star witness" who watched as her husband was hacked to death is "absolutely incapable of holding any weight whatsoever," a lawyer claimed on Thursday.
Making his closing speech to the Belfast Crown Court jury, defence QC Dermot Fee argued there was not enough evidence against his client, Edward Stokes, 38, which the jury could be sure of to be able to convict him of the bloody and brutal murder of fellow traveller John Mongan.
The father-of-three was hacked to death in front of his heavily pregnant wife Julia in the bedroom of their Fallswater Street home in west Belfast in February 2008, after a gang of four men smashed their way into the bedroom.
Edward Stokes, from Cornshell Fields in Derry, is charged with the murder alongside Christopher Stokes, 34, from Great James Street, also Derry, and a 16-year-old who cannot be named because of his age.
The three also deny causing criminal damage to Mr Mongan's Mitsbushi Shogun jeep while Edward Stokes faces a further charge of wounding Mrs Mongan with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Mr Fee is the last lawyer to make his closing submissions to the jury and he claimed that Mrs Mongan had told "lie after lie after lie" in making her numerous police statements and while she was giving evidence.
He told the jury that while the Crown seek to rely on Mr Mongan's DNA being found on the shirt as supportive evidence, he said Mr Mongan was, unfortunately, no stranger to fist fights and so the blood could have been transferred onto the shirt at an unknown time before his killing.
"It doesn't really come into the equation unless there's something there to support," said Mr Fee adding, "if she's [Mrs Mongan] incapable of belief, which she is, you don't get anywhere near looking at this spot or smear of blood".
His last point was in relation to whether or not the killers were wearing balaclavas at the time of the killing.
The jury have heard that initially at the scene, Mrs Mongan said they were masked but later changed that to say they had been wearing hats and neighbours also testified to say they saw masked men leaving the house.
The lawyer put to the jury that it was a simple question: "If you have in your minds the possibility that the people who attacked Mr Mongan had masks on, then you acquit - that's it...that's the end of the case."
The jury will now be charged by trial judge Mr Justice Treacy before they retire to consider their verdicts.
The trial continues.
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