Family aggrieved as judge frees son who killed father

“THAT judge is giving dispensation to any child with an alcoholic parent to kill him.”

That was the reaction of Maria Cunningham after her brother’s killer, his son, walked free from the Central Criminal Court yesterday.

Thomas Cunningham, 19, was convicted by a jury earlier this year of the manslaughter of Thomas Brendan Cunningham Snr, 46, at their home in Santa Maria Commons, Ballinlough, Co Roscommon, on August 23, 2007.