The jury has been discharged in the trial of a 28-year-old man accused of the murder of Wexford mother of two Rebecca French.
It has now emerged that no one will be prosecuted for the murder of the 30-year-old, whose body was found in the boot of a burning car on 9 October last year.
At the Central Criminal Court this morning, a murder charge was dropped against Ricardas Dilys of Goodtide Harbour in Wexford town.
He pleaded guilty to disposing of and attempting to destroy her body.
His co-accused, Ruslanas Mineikas, 26, also had a murder charge dropped after he admitted the same charge last week. Both men had denied the murder.
The decision follows days of legal argument in the case during which it emerged that there were technical legal difficulties with the men's detention.
The court was told in the absence of the jury that the men were not lawfully detained when crucial statements were made to gardaí. The statements were ruled inadmissible in the trial.
Two other men had pleaded guilty to impeding the investigation before the trial got under way. All four will be sentenced at the end of the month.
Gardaí said they are not looking for anyone else in connection with her murder.
The eight-day trial heard that Ms French's body was discovered by firefighters in the boot of her car at Cod's Lane on 9 October 2009.
The four men were found in a house at Ard Na Dara, Clonard Wexford, where blood-stained clothes and blood-stained golf clubs were seized.
The DNA profile from the blood on the golf clubs matched the victim's.
The prosecution had alleged that Ms French was murdered in the house, that Dilys used a golf club to inflict three fractures to her skull, while Mineikus broke a number of her ribs by kicking and stamping on her.
State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy testified that she died of blunt force trauma to the head.
A number of complex legal issues arose in the final days of the trial and legal argument was discussed in the jury's absence.
Mr Justice Barry White this morning told the seven men and five women of the jury that he would likely sentence all four defendants at the end of the month.
'As of this moment, it would be inappropriate for me to pass any comment in relation to the evidence,' he said. 'No doubt you'll form your own opinions and conclusions.'
