A jury has failed to reach a manslaughter verdict over a Croatian man who died after being pushed out of a lift by an ex-policeman.
Oliver Hurley, 63, insists he shoved 56-year-old Manolito Chando in self-defence after the Croatian called him a ‘big Irish b*****d’ and threatened his life.
Mr Chando, who was drunk, bumped his head when he hit the floor at the homeless shelter near Westminster Abbey on 24 March last year and died in hospital two weeks later after being placed in an artificial coma.
Hurley, who represented himself in court, called on the judge to throw out the ‘farcical’ charge after the jury’s failure to agree.
Oliver Hurley (pictured outside court, left, and in a family handout, right) called on a judge to drop a ‘farcical’ manslaughter charge against him after a jury failed to reach a verdict
He was helped by his brother, former Dublin schoolteacher Maurice Hurley, who starred in the RTE reality show ‘The Colony’ with his wife and four children in 2005.
Hurley, a former member of the Republic of Ireland’s Garda from Co Wicklow, denies manslaughter and a lesser alternative of common assault.
The jury of four women and eight men failed to reach verdicts after deliberating for 13 hours and 13 minutes.
Judge Rebecca Poulet, QC, gave prosecutors until 23 October to decide whether they will proceed with a retrial.
When Hurley was released from the dock he said: ‘My application, my lady, is that you consider dismissal of these charges and end this farce.’
Judge Poulet replied: ‘It isn’t a farce Mr Hurley, someone has died.’
The judge released Hurley on conditional bail and urged him to get legal representation before his next hearing.
Hurley told the jury he dropped out of the Garda after he found God and became a pacifist in 1980.
Hurley, a former member of the Republic of Ireland’s Garda from Co Wicklow, represented himself at the Old Bailey
He said Mr Chando was clearly drunk and started racially abusing fellow residents, adding: ‘I knew he had a problem with alcohol and drugs, I felt sorry for him because I had a good life, a very good life.’
Hurler told jurors Mr Chando then told him: ‘You’re nothing but a big Irish bas**rd.’
He said as he tried to get to his room Mr Chando held up the lift by repeatedly pressing the button and blocking the doors.
Hurley used his open palm to push Mr Chando away when he came within an arm’s length of him.
‘The hand, this is the most inoffensive weapon you can use,’ he said.
‘It’s a clear intention to your aggressor I don’t want to harm you, I just want to get you away.
When police interviewed Hurley he told officers Mr Chando had been a ‘pest’.
He was questioned and released on bail but returned to Ireland after hearing police had obtained CCTV footage of the attack, jurors heard.
Hurley was arrested on a European Arrest Warrant six months later but fought extradition until he was brought back to the UK on 31 January this year.
He denies ever trying to evade justice and says he was playing Irish songs on the flute in Trafalgar Square while police where hunting for him in Ireland.
Hurley, of Parsons Green, south-west London, denies manslaughter and an alternative charge of common assault.
He will next appear at the Old Bailey on 23 October.
Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.