A 20-YEAR-OLD butcher will be jailed for life after a jury found him guilty of murdering a shop-owner during a robbery in Arklow over a year ago.
Anthony Farrell, Marian Villas, Arklow, had denied murdering John Deasy at Brauders newsagents, in November 2009.
He stabbed the 44 year old in the chest when Mr Deasy confronted him after he stole €50 from the till. The father-of-two collapsed and died in the doorway of the newsagents within minutes of being stabbed.
The knife had gone in to a depth of 10cm, severing his aorta, and causing his lungs to fill with blood.
There was no noticeable reaction from Farrell or members of the Deasy family as the unanimous guilty verdict was returned, following just under four hours of deliberations by the jury yesterday.
Outside the courtroom, Mr Deasy’s ex-wife and his two daughters embraced and broke down in tears.
During the three-day trial, the court heard that Farrell had arrived at Brauders at about 8pm, wearing a balaclava and armed with a kitchen knife.
When he demanded money from the shop assistant, she screamed for Mr Deasy, who was in his apartment overhead.
He arrived at the door of the shop, also armed with a knife, and confronted Farrell saying, “This is the second f--king time and this time I have the knife.”
There had been two previous armed robberies at the shop. Farrell had not been involved in either.
The two began pushing and shoving each other. Farrell later told gardaí he was trying to get out but Mr Deasy kept kicking him back inside the shop.
He said this happened three or four times, and “the last time I got him . . . I stuck him with the knife when he was standing in the doorway, to get out.”
He said he ran towards Mr Deasy with the knife raised in the air, but that he had panicked and it was an accident.
He was arrested two days later, after gardaí discovered a bloodstained knife and a balaclava in his garden shed. He initially denied his involvement, but during his third interview admitted he had knifed the shopowner as he fled from the store.
“I hit him with force, I did hit him with force,” he told gardaí. He expressed remorse for the killing, but said “the only way to get out was to force him away”.
The three options of murder, manslaughter and acquittal had been open to the jury. In addressing the jury, Mr Justice Paul Butler referred to the fact that the issue of self-defence had been raised by Farrell’s defence team, but cautioned them that if they were of the view Farrell had stabbed Mr Deasy in order to escape, and not to protect himself, then self-defence did not arise.
Senior counsel for the prosecution, Úna Ní Raifeartaigh, had described the killing as a “means to an end” for Farrell. She said he had “hastily but definitively” decided to stab Mr Deasy “so he plunged the knife into his chest . . . as a means to an end, not because he bore Mr Deasy a grudge or ill-will, but because he was getting in the way.”
Farrell will be given the mandatory life sentence on May 20th, when victim impact statements will be heard. He will also be sentenced for robbery, which he had pleaded guilty to.