Relatives of a Carlow man killed during a holiday in Prague said they were "very unhappy" yesterday after a court in the Czech capital cleared a local bar worker of beating him to death.
Fergal Barry (35) died in a Czech hospital in December 2005, just days after being found unconscious in the early hours of the morning on a Prague street. An emergency operation failed to save the popular musician and sound engineer, and he succumbed to serious head injuries.
A Prague city court ruled yesterday that available evidence did not prove that David Skopal (28) dealt the fatal blow to Mr Barry, and instead gave him a two-year suspended sentence for causing serious bodily harm to the victim.
Though witnesses said Skopal had clashed with Mr Barry at the Flash Bar where he worked and where the victim was drinking, they could not be sure that he had delivered the heavy blow that caused a fatal swelling of the brain. Forensic examinations and security camera footage were inconclusive.
There was also anger among the Barry family that a doorman who was working at the bar on the night of the incident had refused to give potentially vital evidence because it may incriminate him.
"We're very unhappy," said John Barry, Fergal's brother, outside the courtroom in central Prague.
"There is no closure now, and we were really hoping for closure. We thought that [Skopal] would at least get some jail time." Mr Barry said his family planned to launch a civil case against Skopal to seek damages for the killing of his brother, whom he described as a sociable man who was a keen football supporter and fine guitarist and stalwart of the Carlow music scene.
Fergal Barry, who worked with his father, Kevin, for Iarnród Éireann at Carlow railway station, was beaten up on December 9th 2005, after becoming separated from a friend with whom he had travelled to Prague for a pre-Christmas break.
Judge Jaroslava Liskova said the cause of the trouble between Mr Barry and Skopal was not clear, but that the barman had injured his victim.
It could not be proved that he had intended to kill him, or that he had delivered the fatal blow, however.
Concluding hearings into what she called a "regrettable incident", the judge said Skopal's sentence should be suspended for five years, and advised him to seek work somewhere other than a bar if he was unable to curb his aggressive tendencies.
John and Kevin Barry, along with Fergal's cousin, Colin, attended the final day of the trial.
In the small courtroom they sat just three metres from Skopal, a tall, burly man with short dark hair and a goatee beard. He did not look at the Barry family during the hearing.
"It's been very tough," John Barry said afterwards. "And now, if we start a civil case, it's all going to drag on again."