A Central Criminal Court judge in Dublin yesterday sentenced three men, including a former British soldier in Northern Ireland, for the manslaughter of a Monaghan man in 1996.
Mr Patrick Maguire (19), an epileptic, died after he was punched and kicked by the three in Monaghan town. One described a co-accused "dancing" on the victim's head.
Former soldier John McCafferty 22 of Coleraine, Co Derry; Sean Bell 21 of Latlurgan, Monaghan, and Keith Byrne, 19 of Cortolvin Road, Monaghan, pleaded guilty to Mr Maguire's manslaughter on May 13th, 1996.
The DPP accepted the plea, and yesterday Mr Justice Brian McCracken sentenced McCafferty to six years' imprisonment, Byrne to four years, and Bell to a three-year suspended term.
He said on the nigh t he died Patrick Maguire had not been drinking, due to his epilepsy, but his assailants had drunk considerable amounts.
He said Sean Bell initiated the assault on Mr Maguire, after alleging he had "spiked" a drink. The judge said there never was an intention to kill, but the attack was "a very severe punishment-type beating".
When Mr Maguire was found he was taken to Monaghan Hospital, where he suffered a cardiac arrest, was successfully resuscitated but died after a second cardiac arrest.
While Bell threw the first punch, he was the least of the aggressors, the judge said. He had no doubt but that McCafferty was the primary attacker and played "by far the greater part in the beating".
McCafferty pursued Mr Maguire when he tried to escape, the judge said. It was also clear, he said, that at some stage after he joined in the attack, Byrne "completely lost control". Suspending Bell's sentence, Mr Justice McCracken said he took into account the fact he had gone voluntarily to gardai.
Supt Edward Murray told prosecuting counsel Mr George Bermingham that in his statement Bell said he saw McCafferty "dancing on the head" of Mr Maguire and repeatedly kicking him.