A man who killed his sister’s partner in a brawl in Co Mayo has been jailed for six years for manslaughter.
Fintan McKenna (24), Woodlands, Balla, Castlebar, had denied the murder of Francis Heneghan in a laneway at the side of the Tavern pub in Kiltimagh, Co Mayo, on August 12th, 2009.
A Central Criminal Court jury found him not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter by a majority verdict, following a 10-day trial in November.
Mr Heneghan, a construction worker and father of three, bled to death in a laneway after being stabbed 11 times.
The State had argued that there was considerable animosity between McKenna and Mr Heneghan, because Mr Heneghan had been unfaithful to Grace McKenna, his sister.
McKenna, originally from Artane in Dublin, admitted to gardaí that he had stabbed Mr Heneghan twice in the chest in self-defence, but insisted he could not have killed him.
At today’s sentencing hearing at the Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice John Edwards described how the incident resulted from “a lethal cocktail of drink, drugs and the use of a knife” by McKenna, who had no previous criminal convictions.
In a victim impact statement, read by Mr Heneghan’s sister Yvonne Barrett, she spoke of the “raw pain, shock and disbelief that we feel as we mourn Frankie”.
Ms Barrett explained how family members have “haunting nightmares about the horror Frankie suffered in his last moments.” She also explained that they suffer from post traumatic stress and are “paralysed by grief and pain”.
She added that Mr Heneghan’s grandfather died eight months after he was killed having “never recovered from the shock” and spoke about what a “wonderful dad” Mr Henegan was to his three children.
After summarising mitigating and aggravating aspects of the case - which included the fact that McKenna had offered a plea to manslaughter at the outset of the case which was turned down by the prosecution - Judge Edwards sentenced him to six years in prison, backdated to when he first went into custody on December 18th, 2009.