A family’s verdict

THE heartbroken family of Brian Murphy pleaded yesterday for the truth surrounding their son’s brutal death.

In hard-hitting addresses delivered personally to court, they said the trial of the four accused left more questions than answers about Brian’s death, and had dehumanised him and brutalised his family in the process. The parents and oldest sister of Brian Murphy, aged 18, spoke as the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court considered what sentences to impose on the three men convicted of offences relating to his beating and subsequent death outside Club Anabel at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin on August 31, 2000.

The Director of Public Prosecutions said yesterday he would not pursue a fresh trial against one of the three, Sean Mackey, aged 23, of South Park, Foxrock, Co Dublin, who escaped a manslaughter conviction after the jury failed to reach a verdict.

Mackey and Desmond Ryan, aged 23, from Cunningham Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin, are both awaiting sentence on charges of violent disorder. They will be sentenced next Monday along with Dermot Laide, aged 22, from Castleblaney, Co Monaghan, who was convicted of both manslaughter and violent disorder. A fourth man was acquitted of all charges.

Barristers pleaded for leniency for the three accused at a sentencing hearing before Judge Michael White during which friends and former employers of the accused provided character witness.

The court heard Laide described as “true goodness” and Ryan as “kind, considerate and helpful“, while a member of management at a St John of God’s facility for the intellectually disabled declared she would welcome former volunteer Sean Mackey back any time.

Mary Murphy, the mother of Brian, however, said she felt “under attack” during the seven-week trial in which, she said, she, her son and her family had had to take a back seat to the defendants, their many lawyers and the media.

“I felt I was being brainwashed into thinking that what happened to Brian was somehow his own fault. The repetition of evidence over and over somehow desensitises people. All the defendants were painted in a wonderful light and that it was a tragedy for them to be here as defendants.

“All of these people had a voice. Brian and our family had no voice. In a strange way I felt that there was an uncanny resemblance between Brian’s predicament in his final moments and my feeling of being surrounded by people who did not want to know about our tragedy.” Mrs Murphy criticised the restrictions governing prosecutions which meant witnesses could not be recalled to clarify what she called “confusing and contradictory” evidence.

Brian’s father, Denis, said the trial process was not about establishing the truth but about “shamelessly avoiding it when it is not on your side”.

“We have had seven weeks of dodging and weaving, denial and obfuscation,” said Mr Murphy.

Their oldest daughter, Claire, 16 months younger than Brian, also detailed the devastation she felt at the loss of her brother.

“You never expect that someone you have grown up with, who himself is still a child, would be taken from you in such a sudden and cruel way,” she said. “It seems the nightmare will never end.”