Jury told of suicide after Shropshire barracks murder

Lance Corporal Richard Farrell, 23, is accused of murdering Corporal Geoffrey McNeill on March 8 at the Clive Barracks in Tern Hill.

But addressing the jury at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday Stephen Linehan QC, defending, questioned why there had been no investigation into one of Cpl McNeill's friends, Corporal Gordon Cronin.

Cpl Cronin was also based in the barracks but could also not remember what had happened on the night. He had been out drinking in Market Drayton with Cpl McNeill on the night he was killed.

Cpl Cronin committed suicide on June 5, 2014, while on leave at home in County Cork. The jury has already heard that in a suicide note to his family he said that after drinking shots in the Sandbrook Vaults he had not remembered anything.

In the note he said he had been trying to remember something but could not. In his letter Cpl Cronin had said his lack of memory had "done his head in". He said he had gone to Cpl McNeill's funeral but his lack of memory had "started to eat away at me".

Mr Linehan said: "I am not here to prosecute a man who is not here. I am not here to make things unhappy for Gordon Cronin's family."

But he said it was his duty to raise the issue.

He said Cpl Cronin had been behaving unusually and aggressively on his way back to the barracks from the town – using concrete to damage a door, car and window of a house he passed.

Mr Linehan said Cpl Cronin had told police in a statement that he had gone to bed in B Block in the barracks, the same block where Cpl McNeill was found.

"This is an alibi," said Mr Linehan.

"Gordon Cronin has never been investigated, because from the moment this man (Farrell) was arrested everything had been done to prove his case."

He said Cpl Cronin had recounted his memory to police and only later did he say he did not remember anything.

"He hid what he thought might have happened that night," said Mr Linehan.

Mr Linehan also told the jury that there were three soldiers who returned that night unable to remember anything and that there was no way of knowing if anything was put in their drinks.

The prosecution has made the case that Farrell had a revenge motive after Cpl McNeill had punched him in the Sandbrook Vaults in Market Drayton.

But Farrell has always insisted he does not remember the night, and denies killing Cpl McNeill.

It was Farrell who found the body and attempted CPR on Cpl McNeill.

Mr Linehan

said that people had already judged Farrell's guilt as soon as he was arrested and charged because that was what people do.

"My submissions are simple – he did not do it," he added.

Farrell denies murder.

The trial continues.