Photo: Alison Laredo

Murder trial put off for a year

THE trial of a man charged with the murder of brothers Jack and Tom Blaine at their home in Newantrim Street, Castlebar, won’t now go ahead until next year.

That’s four years since the brothers died.

The trial of the accused, Alan Cawley (27), Four Winds, Corrimbla, Ballina, was to have begun on Monday next (July 11) in the Central Criminal Court, Dublin.

Seventy witnesses from the Castlebar area, including gardaí, were to have given evidence at the trial.

But now they have been informed that the trial can’t go ahead for a further year as the accused has changed his legal representation.

The date now pencilled in for the start of the trial is July 4, 2017.

Alan Cawley is accused of the double murders of Castlebar brothers Jack and Tom Blaine at their home in Newantrim Street in July 2013.

Jack (70) and Tom (68) were found dead by a care worker when she called to their house in the early morning.