A 67-year-old martial arts instructor, who repeatedly stabbed a man who he once had an “intimate” relationship with, has been jailed for four years for manslaughter.
Sentencing Noel Lenihan on Monday at the Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice Michael White said his "dysfunctional" relationship with the victim Chrisopher McGrath had not been good for either of them and was complicated by alcohol.
“Difficulties” had come to Lenihan in his “own home” and the court had to give serious consideration to this, noted the judge.
However, Mr Justice White said the defendant’s own account of what happened inside his house that night did not reflect the degree of injuries inflicted on the deceased. “No doubt he minimised the degree of excessive force he used,” he said.
The court heard that the defendant was considered “a family friend” to the deceased’s younger siblings and that the two men were previously in an “intimate” relationship.
The court heard that Lenihan had kissed Mr McGrath (38) when he was 14 years old but there was “nothing of a sexual nature until he became an adult”.
Lenihan, from Cardinal Cushing Road, Mervue, Galway was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty in July to Mr McGrath's manslaughter on March 12th, 2017 at Lenihan's home. The plea was accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The court previously heard that Mr McGrath had spent his youth protecting his younger siblings from their “mentally unstable” mother by “taking the brunt” of her “fierce temper”.
However, the deceased had a history of problems with drugs and alcohol, was in and out of homelessness and would sometimes stay at Lenihan’s house.
Lenihan claimed he was acting in self defence when he stabbed Mr McGrath “in fear” with a steak knife after the deceased scaled a wall at the back of his house in the early hours of the morning, came in through a back door and threatened him.
Lenihan told gardaí in his interviews that following a stuggle, Mr McGrath put him in a “scarf hold”, a judo move that the defendant had previously taught him.
He claimed Mr Grath said he would choke him. Lenihan said he found a knife underneath an armchair and stabbed him. He claimed he had used the knife in a “get off me” motion while he still had his back to Mr McGrath.
Acting State Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan said Mr McGrath had suffered five knife wounds, including a fatal wound to the heart that was consistent with a “direct frontal” movement rather than a backwards one.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice White noted there was an “internal conflict” on the evidence as to the nature of violence inflicted by Lenihan on Mr McGrath as distinct from the defendant’s own account.
The DPP had accepted that Lenihan’s manslaughter sentence was based on excessive self defence, explained the judge, adding that the defendant had no intention to intentionally kill Mr McGrath nor cause him serious harm.
Mr Justice White said the most serious type of harm had been caused in this incident with the tragic loss of Mr McGrath’s life, which has caused so much distress to his family.