Former police officer cleared of murdering wife
Joseph Alfred Haveron.
FORMER RUC sergeant Joseph Alfred Haveron has been cleared of murdering his estranged wife Pauline.
The 58-year-old ex-policeman of Tudor Road, Carrick was to stand trial for the second time accused of murdering his 53-year-old ex-wife on April 2010.
The part-time nurse, a mother of four, was found naked and floating face down in her bath in her Huntingdale Green home in Ballyclare.
However, at Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday (January 8), after hearing that the prosecution were offering no evidence, Mr Justice Treacy directed a jury of six men and six women to formally find Mr Haveron “not guilty” of his wife’s murder.
Mr Haveron originally went on trial last month and while there was no direct evidence linking him to the murder, the prosecution claimed that the former policeman’s car was captured on CCTV footage at various locations close to the murder scene.
The judge questioned the quality of the photographs a video analyst based his conclusions on, describing the images as nothing more than a “blob”.
After the CCTV evidence was questioned by the trial judge, the prosecution decided not to rely on it. The original jury was dismissed and a re-trial ordered.
At the hearing in Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday the prosecution said it was offering no evidence in the case and the jury was directed to return a not guilty verdict.
Following his release in a statement Mr Haveron’s said the past two years had been a “nightmare” for him and his family.
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Friday 24 May 2013
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