Trial date set for man accused of killing Blaine brothers

NEXT July, almost precisely four years after brothers Jack and Tom Blaine were brutally killed at their home in Castlebar, a man is to go on trial for double murder.

Alan Cawley, with an address at Four Winds, Corrimbla, Ballina, will be tried at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.

Some 70 witnesses from the Castlebar area, including gardai, will be called as witnesses.

The date now fixed for the start of the trial is July 4.

Alan Cawley, now in his early thirties, is accused of the double murders of pensioner 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. Both bodies showed signs of serious injury.

The circumstances of the deaths shocked not alone the local community but the entire nation.