A 16-YEAR-OLD boy from Limerick has been sentenced to 10 years in detention by the Central Criminal Court for the brutal murder of a man who knocked over his bottle of beer.
The defendant was drinking on the street with other boys when Patrick Coleman (34) passed by and knocked over the teenager’s drink. Mr Coleman was followed, stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle and left to bleed to death.
Mr Justice Paul Carney imposed a sentence of 10 years’ detention on the 16-year-old who was not subject to the usual mandatory life sentence for murder because he was under 17 years.
Mr Justice Carney said, “I take account of the gratuitous and cruel nature of this killing which is quite appalling”.
He said he must give credit to the defendant’s plea of guilty to murder but said it was a “tactical” plea which was delivered on the basis that the court would finalise matters while the defendant was underage.
The defendant will turn 17 next month.
Mr Justice Carney also took into account the absence of previous convictions and legislative policy which required that rehabilitation be provided for.
John O’Kelly SC, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Coleman was walking home alone after the All-Ireland hurling final on September 2nd, 2008.
He had been drinking and had a bag holding cans of beer. As he approached the Janesboro Soccer Club he saw teenage boys sitting on the pavement drinking.
Mr O’Kelly said the victim knocked over a bottle which belonged to the defendant who became angry and confronted Mr Coleman. The deceased walked on towards his home but the defendant followed and continued to argue with him.
The teenager picked up a glass bottle, smashed it and followed Mr Coleman about 300 yards up the James Carew Park Links Road. Mr O’Kelly said that without warning the defendant swung his arm and stuck the broken bottle into Mr Coleman’s neck. The defendant then ran from the scene as did the other boys who had been following at a distance of 40 to 50 yards.
Mr Coleman was bleeding heavily and continued to walk another 300 yards to his house. He went inside and was later found dead in his bathroom due to blood loss.
Detective Garda Paul Madden said that three youths, including the defendant, presented themselves at the Garda station the following day and made voluntary statements in which they falsely alleged that Mr Coleman had asked them for money he thought they owed him for hash.
Det Garda Madden said that the supporting statements telling this story were later withdrawn. The defendant was arrested and interviewed a month later. He initially stuck to his story about Mr Coleman looking for money but later agreed that he did not know Mr Coleman. All that had happened was that the deceased knocked over his drink.
A witness told gardaí that he saw the teenager hit Mr Coleman in the neck with half of a bottle and said “I didn’t see Mr Coleman do anything to deserve this”.
Mr O’Kelly told the court that the Director of Public Prosecutions considered that the only mitigating factor was the defendant’s age. Mr O’Kelly said there had been no expression of remorse for taking Mr Coleman’s life “callously and pointlessly”.
Anthony Sammon SC, defending, said that his client had become upset when he heard the victim’s mother deliver the victim impact report to the court.
Counsel said a counsellor had suggested the teenager had expressed remorse. Mr Sammon said his client had the “capacity and desire to rehabilitate” and requested that he be placed in St Patrick’s Institute.