A Dublin man was sentenced to five years' imprisonment yesterday for the unlawful killing of his partner during a drunken row in a flat in Rathfarnham last year.
In the Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice Carney sentenced Martin Merrigan (34) to five years for the manslaughter of Mark Egan (42), at Loreto Court, Rathfarnham, Dublin, on March 1st, 2001.
The court heard that Merrigan and Egan shared a flat in Loreto Court. The couple hid their sexuality from neighbours and when he was first detained, Merrigan used the surname Egan and indicated he and Mark Egan were brothers.
In October, a jury unanimously accepted Merrigan's defence that he was provoked into a temporary loss of control during a jealous, drunken row with his partner. He was acquitted on the murder charge and convicted of manslaughter. Imposing sentence, Mr Justice Carney said the five-year term would include a credit for 21 months served to date.
The judge heard that the accused was a chronic alcoholic who was homeless except for the times when he lived with Mark Egan. Merrigan was known to gardaí as a "down-and-out" but not as a troublemaker. Mr Egan, who at one time was a policeman in Dublin Port, was also an alcoholic.
Counsel for the DPP, Mr Patrick McCarthy SC, said that Mr Egan "had begun to be friendly in a non-sexual relationship with a security guard in a shop in the vicinity". On the night of the killing, he "kept on going on about" the other man to Merrigan, who became jealous.
Both men had been drinking cans of cider from early morning. In the course of the argument, Mr Egan, who was the legal tenant of the flat, threatened to throw Merrigan out. In evidence before his trial jury, Merrigan said: "I felt my whole world was falling apart . . . I was losing the love of my life, my best friend, and I thought I was going back to sleeping on benches in the park again."
His counsel, Mr Martin Giblin SC, told the court yesterday that Merrigan was now "diligently attending Alcoholics Anonymous" and intended never to drink again.
Through his lawyer, Merrigan apologised to Mr Egan's family for what he had done. The court heard that both the accused and the deceased had been out of contact with their respective families for years.