Teenager to stand trial in connection with Cameron Blair murder

A teenage boy will go on trial on Friday accused of violent disorder and production of a knife in connection with the murder of 20-year-old college student Cameron Blair in Cork last year.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named because he is a minor, is charged with committing violent disorder with two other persons present together, using or threatening to use unlawful violence, and such conduct taken together, was such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at Bandon Road in Cork city to fear for his or another person’s safety at the said place on January 16th, 2020.

‘Juvenile court’

The boy is also accused of producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury in the course of a dispute, to wit a knife, in a manner likely unlawfully to intimidate another person on the same occasion.

Addressing the jury panel on Wednesday, Mr Justice Michael White said the accused was a juvenile, which meant that he was under 18 years of age so it would be a “juvenile court”.

When the registrar at the Central Criminal Court read the indictment to the accused and asked him how he was pleading, he replied: “not guilty” to both counts.

A jury of eight men and four women was sworn in to hear the trial .

Cameron Blair was a native of Ballinascarthy in west Cork and a second-year chemical engineering student at Cork Institute of Technology. He died after being stabbed in the neck while attending a student party.