A man has been jailed for life after a jury found him guilty of murder in 2008.
The sisters of murder victim David Whyte burst into tears after the man was sentenced to life imprisonment for the fatal stabbing of their brother.
A jury of seven men and four women – one juror was discharged due to illness – came to the unanimous verdict at the Central Criminal Court yesterday after three hours of deliberations over two days.
Criostóir Mac Carthaigh (36), Baile Phamar (Palmerstown), Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to stabbing Mr Whyte (35) more than 100 times in September 2008.
The murder trial heard that Mac Carthaigh had stabbed Mr Whyte “to pieces” in the ruins of an old church at a time between September 24th and 25th, 2008. The jury was told that Mac Carthaigh had been drinking in a flat in Phibsboro on the night of the killing.
The prosecution said he had left at about 11pm to go into the city centre when he met Mr Whyte on Ulster Street. The State said Mac Carthaigh attacked and drove Mr Whyte to Mill Lane in Palmerstown where he stabbed him repeatedly in church ruins.
Mr Whyte’s two sisters Lesley and Paula were emotional following the verdict. In a victim impact statement read to the court by brother-in-law Jonathan Spollen, Mr Whyte was described as “a happy-go-lucky, gentle giant who never harmed a soul in his life”.
“Unfortunately our Davey found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time after a night out socialising with his friends. It could have been anybody’s son, brother or friend that found themselves in this horrendous situation.”
Mr Spollen continued that Mr Whyte was an innocent man. “David was a completely innocent man minding his own business, walking home from the pub when he was viciously attacked, abducted and brutally murdered,” he said.
Outside court, Mr Spollen added that he had nothing to say about Mac Carthaigh. “There is no motive – it was an absolute attack on an innocent man who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was walking home . . . he was attacked, he was stabbed to death, he was left on his own in a strange place and nobody knew where he was or what was wrong. We didn’t know he was even missing . . . He was an absolutely innocent man.”
“I have nothing to say about him [Mac Carthaigh],” he said. “We got the verdict that we believe is the right verdict.”