Man denies causing death of man in Belfast city centre almost three years ago

A 58-year-old man from England today (Friday) denied causing the death of a man in Belfast city centre almost three years ago.

Anthony Marino, of Woodside, Coven Road in Stafford, appeared at Belfast Crown Court via video-link for his brief arraignment hearing.

Defence barrister Luke Curran told Judge Philip Gilpin that the arraignment was "in a position to proceed''.

The court clerk read out the charge to Marino that "on March 22, 2022, you caused the death of James McKibben by driving a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road, namely Howard Street in the vicinity of Bedford Street and Donegall Square West without due care and attention''.

Asked how he pleaded, the defendant replied: "Not guilty.''

Prosecution barrister Samantha Madden said the Crown were seeking a pathologist's report and had identified two potenial experts but were awaiting timescales on their availability.

Mr Curran said he was also seeking a pathologist's report and was instructing a Dublin-based consultant engineer to provide an expert report.

He asked for some time to provide the court with a defence statement, stating: "Given the issues that are likely to be raised by both reports, the prosecution and defence are entirely aware of what the issues are in the case but if more time was allowed it would help to crystalise those issues into a more detailed defence statement''.

Judge Gilpin said he would make no direction at this stage for the filing of a defence statement until all reports had been received.

With no trial date being set, Judge Gilpin said he would review the case on Tuesday, March 18, to await an update on both medical reports and the engineer's report.

The judge told the defendant that he had pleaded not guilty to the single charge he faced and he been asked not to fix a trial at this stage as there were issues around expert reports being sought.

Judge Gilpin said there was no need for Marino to physically attend court for the review hearing next month but if he wanted he could attend again by videolink.

No details were given in court today (Friday) on the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr McKibben.