A Dublin man has received a six-and-a-half year prison sentence for the one-punch manslaughter of another male in the city last year.
Alan Hatch (38) hit Liam Bennett in what he later described as a "perfect punch" after a brief verbal argument during a chance encounter along the canal near the Golden Bridge Industrial Estate.
Mr Bennett (46) suffered a massive brain injury from the impact with the ground and died a week later in Beaumont Hospital. Garda Kevin Lawless revealed CCTV footage of the incident showed Mr Bennett swing his elbow at Mr Hatch while the two men were passing each other along the canal.
Mr Hatch, of South Circular Road, Kilmainham, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to the unlawful killing of Mr Bennett at Tyrconnell Road, Inchicore on August 8th, 2013. He also pleaded guilty to robbing nurse Natalie Delaney of her handbag and contents on Thomas Street on January 6th, 2013.
He has 29 previous convictions, including a four year sentence for robbery in 2003.
Judge Mary Ellen Ring said the court accepts Mr Hatch did not set out to kill Mr Bennett but the attack was without cause and gratuitous and that nothing Mr Bennett said or did could justify the assault.
She said that this case was not the first single blow manslaughter case to come before courts and the accused in these cases came from all classes and with “all opportunities and none”.
“What ever happened to the concept of turning the other cheek? It seems to be lost in this society,” she said.
She suspended the last 12 months of a six-and-a-half year sentence. She backdated the sentence to August 3rd, 2013, the date Mr Hatch went into custody for this offence.
In a victim impact report the Bennett family said: “Liam was a much loved son, brother, uncle and friend. He is greatly missed by all of his family and most of all by his mam.
“We live in hope that no other person will experience the heinous violence from the source Liam did.”
Gda Lawless told Garnet Orange BL, prosecuting, that witnesses described Mr Bennett talking to himself as he walked along Tyrconnell Road on August 1st, 2013. Mr Hatch revealed he had been confused about how Mr Bennett was speaking to himself and had not expected him to “lash out” as they passed each other by.
CCTV footage shows the two men meeting and speaking to each other before the victim raises his elbow in the air towards Mr Hatch. The footage does not show the elbow making any contact with Hatch, who later claimed to gardai he was hit slightly.
Mr Hatch said in interview that he had not intended to assault Mr Bennett, whom he recognised from drugs clinics. He said he punched Mr Bennett in response to him saying: “I’ll mill you with this.”
Mr Hatch told gardai he knew it was a perfect punch, but added: “I’m not a fighter. I never did boxing or martial arts or anything like that.”
Mr Hatch told gardai he had panicked after throwing the punch, but went back a short time later to see a number of people gathered around the deceased. He said that he was “sorry for the outcome”.
He said he had left his flat a number of minutes before the encounter to go to the shops.
Gda Lawless revealed a toxicology report on the deceased, who suffered from Hepatitis C, showed he had alcohol, methadone, morphine and tablets in his blood.
A medical report also stated Mr Bennett had a thinner skull than the rest of the population, a condition described as “eggshell skull” by Mr Orange.
Mr Hatch, who has struggled with heroin addiction in the past, was not on bail for the earlier handbag robbery at the time of the fatal assault.
The garda agreed with Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, that it was fair to say that if the deceased had not been saying things as he walked along, both men would have gone about their business.