The State has withdrawn charges against a man accused of withholding information in relation to the fatal shooting of another man.

Thomas Hunt (40) was alleged to have bought a car which was later used as the getaway car in the murder of Alan Ryan on September 3 2012. He was arrested the following month and denied buying the car.

Hunt of Donnycarney, Dublin had pleaded not guilty to withholding information, on dates between September 3 and October 23, 2012, which might have been of material assistance in securing the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of a person for a serious offence, the murder of Alan Ryan.

The State entered a nolle prosequi in the case after Judge Catherine Murphy ruled that telephone records held on a mainframe computer could not be relied on as evidence because there was no evidence that the computer was operating correctly at the relevant time.

The trial heard that it was the State’s case that Mr Hunt was the owner of a mobile telephone at the time that it was used to buy the car later used in the murder.

In her ruling at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court Judge Murphy said there must be evidence of the function and operation of the main frame computer, on which the call records are held.

She said: “This must include information that the computer was operating correctly at the relevant time”.

The ruling relies on a 1992 judgement from the UK appeal courts which held that the prosecution must provide evidence of the function and operation of the mainframe computer used to store the records.

The Cochrane ruling, which has been upheld by the Irish courts, noted that “the problem of proving transactions of this type must now arise frequently and it should be possible…to devise a standard form of evidence to deal with it.”

Judge Murphy had earlier ruled that the evidence of the records held on the Meteor mainframe server was not admissible under the 1992 Criminal Evidence Act because the act does not cover automatically held records.

The evidence in this case was that the records were held, automatically, on the Meteor mainframe server.

The prosecution then submitted to the Court that the records could be admitted under Common Law. Judge Murphy ruled against them on this and noted that the UK judgement states there must be evidence “that the computer was operating correctly at the relevant time”.

The UK judgement states that the prosecution must provide “authoritative evidence about the operation of the relevant machines”

Judge Murphy noted that an engineer from Meteor gave evidence for the prosecution that he had working knowledge of the Meteor computer system but not of the mainframe computer from on the records were held.

After four days of legal argument in the absence of the jury Judge Murphy discharged the jury and informed it that the State had decided not to proceed with the case.

At the start of the trial Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, told the jury that he was making a number of admissions on behalf of his client.

He said it was accepted that Mr Ryan was shot dead as he was walking with a friend along Grange Lodge Avenue, in Clongriffin, north Dublin at around three in the afternoon on September 3, 2012.

The gunman ran to a Volvo S40 which was then driven by another man to Balgriffin Cottages where the Volvo was abandoned and set on fire. The gunman and driver then got into a Punto and escaped.

Mr O’Higgins said his client accepts that the Volvo was parked near Grange Lodge Avenue from September 1, 2012.

Neighbours had also observed the Punto parked at Balgriffin Cottages from August 31 to the day of the killing.

In his opening speech Patrick Marrinan SC, prosecuting, told the jury that the car used and later found burned out was traced to a last registered owner. The owner had placed the car for sale on the “Donedeal” website and on August 25 a man telephoned him from a mobile number.

Mr Marrinan said it was alleged that this number was Mr Hunt’s and that he was the person who went on to buy the car for €3,000.

After the shooting gardai arrested Mr Hunt and asked him to say who he had passed the car on to. During these garda interviews Mr Hunt denied that he had purchased the car, the court heard.