A Co Armagh man accused of trying to cut a victim’s head off has been acquitted of attempted murder after the prosecution offered no evidence in the case.
With a jury sworn in at Newry Crown Court and ready to hear the trial of 30-year-old Jamie Gollogly, prosecuting KC David Russell said that due to “developments” since the Public Prosecution Service decided to proceed to trial, the Crown now intended “to offer no evidence in the case.”
Thanking the jury of their attendance, Judge Paul Ramsey KC said that as they had heard no evidence “I will be directing you to find verdicts of not guilty by direction.”
Gollogly, from Rockview Crescent in Belleeks, had faced two charges of attempted murder and single offences of aggravated burglary, criminal damage and possessing a weapon, namely a hatchet, all alleged to have been committed on 1 June 2022
Although the facts of the case were not opened on Monday, when Gollogly was initially charged the court heard how two men were attacked with hatchets in an “extremely violent” incident linked to a “tit for tat….ongoing feud.”
The court heard the victim who suffered the attempted decapitation had also sustained a fractured skull, a punctured lung and “significant damage to the bones in his left hand.”
The other victim had sustained what he said were “life changing injuries” including a fractured skull, two punctured lungs as well as “severe lacerations…caused by a bladed instrument.”
The detective said police believed the hatchet attack was linked to an incident the month earlier when an associate of Gollogly had acid thrown over him and also to a shooting in Newry in January.
Having checked the jury foreperson had signed to record not guilty verdicts, Judge Ramsey told Gollogly “you are free to leave the dock.”