Dublin's former foreign minister Dick Spring will today end days of speculation by standing down after 15 years as leader of

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Dublin's former foreign minister Dick Spring will today end days of speculation by standing down after 15 years as leader of Ireland's Labour Party. Trust directors are hoping to find volunteers over the coming weeks to develop a new community-based, not-for-profit organisation which could oversee a scaled-down festival next year.This approach is in line with Pride's history of community politics. She blames this year's losses on a lack of contingency money set aside for "those extra expenses which always crop up".Whoever is to blame for the current crisis, it is likely to bring to the surface a rift in the community based on different philosophical approaches to the event. Since then, the company, which relies heavily on volunteers, has managed to deal with accumulated losses by encouraging suppliers and sponsors to pay in advance for the following year. This year's event, which was overbudgeted by pounds 80,000, inherited a rollover deficit of over pounds 100,000 from last year. "Pride needs a clean slate and the Trust is not prepared to defer the deficit for yet another year," said Rachel Smith, chairperson, who is likely to make an announcement next week.

"In August our figures showed we had made enough money this year to clear the deficit. But a number of additional invoices have since come in, including things we were not prepared for, such as pounds 40,000 in lost equipment, some higher than expected invoices, and some sponsors paying us less because things didn't go to plan."Teddy Witherington, The Pride Trust's company secretary and festival producer, who left the organisation this summer to work in the United States, blames "power struggles within the Pride Trust", with "too few people making too many decisions", and the fact that the Trust has failed to raise new sponsorship deals over the past four months."Pride has become a monster that's got out of control," said Kim Lucas, the woman behind Summer Rites, set up two years ago as a commercially based alternative festival for gay Londoners. The future of the annual London Lesbian and Gay Pride festival, which claims to be the world's largest free music event, attracting more than a quarter of a million people, has been thrown into serious doubt by the voluntary liquidation of the festival's organiser, The Pride Trust The situation is not new. Pride has always lurched from financial crisis to crisis - the Pride Trust itself was set up five years ago after the previous organisers went bankrupt. "You should not try to substitute your judgment for the judgment of the jury," the lead prosecutor, Gerard Leone, told the judge, adding that it would be wrong also to attempt to play the role of the "thirteenth juror".Mr Leone also stressed that the defence made its own bed when it elected before the trial's end to withhold from the jury manslaughter as an option for conviction, leaving it only with murder or not guilty.While expectations seemed to be rising that some action would be taken by Judge Zobel to mitigate the plight of Ms Woodward, it was unclear what route he would take or whether the defence had given him sufficient information to overturn the status quo.Agonising wait, page 3Suzanne Moore, page 21.

To shape the evidence as heard by the jury to fit that charge, the defence said it was ready to accept that Ms Woodward may have inflicted some "trivial" trauma on Matthew on 4 February that triggered a re-bleed of the brain clot which it says was caused three weeks before.The prosecution, however, urged the judge to deny all three motions. If not, it is likely to be early next week.As expected, the defence pushed at all three doors yesterday, including the option of a manslaughter conviction. Or, of course, he could let the decision of the 12-person jury stand. His tensely awaited decision will be posted on the Internet, not announced in court, and could come today. "I leave it to your conscience, your honour," Mr Scheck finished.Found at the back of a cupboard in the Medical Examiner's office and submitted to the trial after Ms Woodward's appearance, the pictures appear to support the crux of the defence case that the head impact that killed Matthew did not happen on 4 February, as alleged, but up to three weeks earlier.Judge Zobel could throw out the verdict and declare an acquittal, call a new trial, or reduce Ms Woodward's conviction to one of manslaughter with a much lower sentence. This may imply regret amongst the lawyers about her testimony.In a post-verdict hearing in the courtroom where Ms Woodward was found guilty nearly a week ago, Mr Scheck urged Judge Hiller Zobel to call a re-trial principally because of the photographs.