Two Dubliners have been sentenced to life in prison for murdering the cousin of one of them ‘over a few tablets’, before dumping his body on a roadside in the south of the county.
The father-of-one had been stabbed 20 stab times, including through his skull and spine.
Andrew Guerrine's sister said that her brother had 'to his detriment' trusted his cousin and his cousin's friend, who then laughed and joked throughout their five-week murder trial. Her victim impact statement was read to the Central Criminal Court at their sentence hearing on Wednesday.
Stephen Tynan (41), a father-of-two, of Deerpark Lodge, Kiltipper, Tallaght, Dublin 24 and Raymond Fitzgerald (37) of Knockmore Grove, Killinarden, also in Tallaght had both pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Tynan's cousin, Andrew Guerrine, at an unknown place between May 22nd and May 23rd, 2015.
The trial heard Guerrine's body was found in the early hours of May 23rd on Steelstown Lane in Rathcoole, 10km from where he was last seen alive in Tallaght. The deceased, who was from New Street in the city, had gone to Tallaght to sell tablets and was last seen approaching a pedestrian entrance into Knockmore.
The defendants were connected to the murder through a car, CCTV footage and mobile phone records. The evidence was circumstantial, but a jury found them guilty by majority verdict last month.
Destruction and pain
Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, on Wednesday read out a victim impact statement prepared by the deceased man’s sister, Edel Guerrine.
She said that the family had hoped that the defendants ‘would have done the right thing and pleaded guilty’ but they had never admitted what they had done.
“They have caused so much destruction and pain to this family, it is hard to put into words,” she said.
She said Mr Guerrine had been a son, father, brother and uncle, who the defendants had decided to take away from them permanently.
She said that her brother had lived a life of which his family had disapproved but, regrettably, would not listen to them.
“We now have to live with the constant questions running through our heads: Could we have done more? What if we had done this? What if we had done that?” she continued.
She said that there was another side to her brother, not outlined in court.
“The person he really was at home away from the life of drugs was that of a loving father, who worshiped the ground his daughter worked on,” she said. “He was funny, caring, adored his daughter, nieces and nephews. If anything, he was a big child himself.”
She said that he would sit for hours playing and colouring with the children, even acting as a hair and makeup model for the girls.
“He was not cut out for the life he lived,” she added. “He was not in any way violent, malicious or could under any circumstances commit the crime these two defendants did.”
She said he had a big heart and was the definition a ‘gentle giant’.
“Andrew was, perhaps, too trusting and trusted the defendants to his detriment,” she said.
She said the family had been stuck in a nightmare for the past three years, but unfortunately could not wake up from it.
“We have had to read some gruesome details of the injuries Andrew received from the defendants,” she said. “We have seen the site in Steelstown Lane, plastered in newspapers and news outlets, where the defendants left Andrew on the side of the road, miles away from home, alone in the dark, hoping he wouldn’t be found, and drove off like they were dumping rubbish.”
She said she had questioned how individuals could do this, how they slept at night, when the family had so many sleepless nights.
“This hurt, distrust, anger and absolute hell will stay with us for the rest of our lives,” she said.
She described seeing him in the morgue, his eyes open, looking scared and helpless.
“I have to see that image nightly when I close my eyes,” she said.
She said that, not only had the family been given a life sentence, they had to sit in court looking at those responsible ‘laugh, joke and show absolutely no remorse’.
She spoke of how Tynan had arrived at their aunt’s funeral ‘hours after inflicting those horrific injuries to Andrew’. She said he had walked up to her father, hugged him and told him he was sorry for his loss.
“What kind of person can do this?” she asked. “How can you go to a man and hug him, knowing that hours earlier you literally stabbed his son in the back?”
She said that the family felt that it might not be so painful if the defendants were not known to them.
“When a member of your own family does this to you, it is the most hurtful thing in the world,” she said. “We will never recover from this. It has literally destroyed us.”
She said that happy occasions that bring a family together were a thing of the past.
Hearts shattering
She said that their hearts were shattering with every day that passed and that seeing photographs of Tynan at a family party during the trial was ‘another break straight to the heart’.
She said that they had celebrated her brother’s 40th birthday this year, complete with cake and balloons, but couldn’t answer his five-year-old nephew’s question about why they couldn’t go and get his uncle.
“How do we explain that these defendants thought your uncle’s life was only valued at a few tablets that they didn’t want to pay for?” she asked.
She said that there was not enough time in the world to go into depth on how the murder had affected everyone, and that her statement was just an insight into what they’d gone through.
She said that no sentence would be long enough for her, and spoke again of the two murderers’ lack of respect for the family during the trial.
“They laughed. They joked. They just don’t care,” she said. “They don’t seem to care about the value of life, not even Stephen’s own cousin.”
She said that the only happy ending was the guilty verdict and knowing that they would not be out, potentially doing this to another person.
Mr Justice Michael White expressed his condolences to the Guerrine family, and described the victim impact statement as ‘very noble’. He noted that one of those found guilty was his first cousin, ‘something of absolute shock and horror for the family’.
“All life is precious,” he said. “The family was clear he had his problems.”
However, he said that he was a man, who was cruelly and violently killed in a very vicious way and left abandoned on the side of the road.
He imposed the mandatory life sentence on both Tynan and Fitzgerald. They were then led away to begin their sentences.