Legal history was made in the county for the first time this week – for all the wrong reasons.
Judge Donagh McDonagh
It is believed that for the first time a criminal trial could not go ahead in a Donegal court because not enough jurors were available to proceed.
On Tuesday at Letterkenny Circuit Court, two trials were preparing to get underway before Judge Donagh McDonagh.
A total of 28 people turned up to serve their civic duty on the jury panel.
There are normally a lot more present when a jury panel in selected.
Both the prosecution and defence teams are both entitled to make unspecified objections of jurors prior to the panel being sworn in.
They successfully reached 12 jurors for the first trial but between the remaining members of the jury panel, coupled with six juror challenges, they had only reached six jurors after the procedure for the second case. The basic requirement for a trial to go ahead is ten.
Judge McDonagh adjourned the matter to be tried under a new jury panel.
It is understood that a technical hitch may have resulted in the inadequate number of qualifying jurors being summoned to the court.