Boy (13) to be sentenced for London murder of Irish builder

A 13-year-old boy will be sentenced on Friday for the murder of a man from Co Cork who died after being stabbed in London just before Christmas.

The teenager, who can't be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to the murder of Cobh man, Jack Barry (53) at Edmonton in Enfield in North London on December 14th last.

A builder, Mr Barry was involved in a row with a group of five boys trying to get into a party at flats in the Broadway in Edmonton Green around 7.45pm on the day in question.

Mr Barry was returning home with his girlfriend Sabrina Finn when he tried to stop the youths gaining entrance to the building but two of them followed him in and he was stabbed.

He managed to get upstairs to the couple’s flat and Ms Finn called the emergency services and ambulance crews attended but he was pronounced dead 30 minutes later.

A postmortem found that Mr Barry died from a stab wound to the chest and his remains were later brought back to Cobh where he was laid to rest in St Colman’s Cemetery.

Police arrested five boys, aged 13 and 14, at the scene. Four were later released and one was charged with the murder.

The officer leading the investigation, Det Chief Inspector Neal Baldock later confirmed that none of the teenagers knew Mr Barry, who had emigrated from Cobh in 1983

“The victim and this group were not known to each other - what started as a minor verbal altercation has escalated into a shocking act of violence,” said Det Chief Inspector Baldock.

Last month, the boy pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to the murder of Mr Barry and the judge ordered a pre-sentencing report before remanding him for sentence today.