Man gets 18 months for killing father with spade

A 23-YEAR-OLD Tipperary man has been jailed for 18 months for killing his father with a spade in a beating that he said was “a long time coming” and described as “pay-back time”.

James McInerney of Lacey Avenue, Templemore was found not guilty of murdering his father but guilty of his manslaughter following an eight-day trial at the Central Criminal Court.

The defendant had described 56-year-old James ‘Jimmy’ McInerney as “the most evil man you could have met”, a man who had spent 25 years beating his wife and family. The dead man’s widow described her husband as a “bad man” and told the court she probably wouldn’t be alive were it not for her son’s protection.