A man walked free from court yesterday after being cleared of the murder but found guilty of the manslaughter of a Portuguese man whose badly beaten body was found near a beach in Co Waterford four years ago.
Stuart Spicer (32), a native of Hampshire, was sentenced to 4½ years in jail by Mr Justice Paul Carney after a jury found him guilty of the manslaughter of Sergio Abreu (45) at Clashanahy, Ardmore, Co Waterford, in September 2002.
Mr Justice Carney heard that Mr Spicer had been in custody since September 13th, 2002. He was sentenced to life imprisonment after he was convicted on October 10th, 2003, of Mr Abreu's murder. He was released on bail after successfully appealing the murder conviction.
Mr Spicer's counsel, Brendan Grehan SC, said his client had effectively been in custody in relation to the killing for three years, four months and three days. Factoring in time for good behaviour, it was the equivalent of getting a sentence of four years and seven months.
Mr Justice Carney's decision to impose and backdate a 4½-year sentence recognised the time that Mr Spicer had already served in jail and it meant that he effectively walked free from court yesterday after he was sentenced.
Sgt Eoin Healy of Youghal Garda station said Mr Abreu, a father of three children, had called to visit his former partner and mother of his youngest child, Miriam Rooney, in Youghal on September 6th, 2002. Ms Rooney was now involved in a new relationship with Mr Spicer.
After Mr Abreu and Ms Rooney went drinking in Youghal, they returned with Mr Spicer to his caravan in a new age traveller camp at Whiting Bay near Ardmore, where they continued drinking.
A row broke out in the caravan between Mr Abreu and another man, Graham Turnbull, and they began fighting outside the caravan, with Spicer and a third man, Steven Job, also joining in, kicking Mr Abreu who was on the ground trying to get away.
Mr Abreu suffered 13 separate blows to the head, including two skull fractures which led to bleeding into the brain. He was dragged a few hundred yards away where his body was found the next morning after Ms Rooney rang the emergency services.
Mr Grehan said his client had pleaded guilty to manslaughter at his original trial and the plea was still available to the State at the outset of the retrial, but the State rejected the manslaughter trial and proceeded with the murder retrial. He said Turnbull and Job were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in jail with 2½ years and three years respectively suspended, meaning they effectively served just over three years with remission.
Mr Grehan also said that his client had a long history of drug abuse but that he was trying to put his past behind him and start afresh. He asked the judge to take these factors into account.