Inmate died after attack over remote

A MOUNTJOY prisoner has been sentenced to eight years in prison for killing a fellow inmate over a remote control.

Alan Smith, aged 34, of Ballybough House, Ballybough Road and Buttercup Park, Darndale, both in Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to murdering David Byrne on July 3, 2009.

However, he pleaded guilty to the 29-year-old’s manslaughter in Mountjoy prison and this was accepted by the state.

The Central Criminal Court had heard that on the evening of June 9, 2009, Smith hit Byrne over the head with a sock containing two batteries because he thought the victim had taken a remote control.

Byrne was seen by a nurse in the Mater Hospital’s emergency department at about 11pm but insisted on being brought back to prison at midnight, as he was about to be admitted as an in-patient. He declined to see the prison doctor.

Byrne was found unconscious in his cell the next morning. He was in a coma for 25 days in the neurosurgical unit of Beaumont Hospital, where he passed away on July 3, 2009.

An autopsy showed he had suffered a skull fracture, which had torn an artery and caused internal bleeding over a number of hours.

Mr Justice Paul Carney said yesterday that he was taking into account “the calculated creation of the weapon of attack”, “the disproportionate response to the perceived grievance” and the effect of the victim’s family.

He sentenced Smith to eight years in prison.

He took Smith’s guilty plea into consideration. The court had previously heard that when arrested, he said he was “gutted” and this remorse was also taken into account.

“Matters would probably have turned out differently, had David Byrne not insisted on rejecting medical attention,” added the judge, suspending the final three years of the sentence.

His sentence will not begin until his five-year sentence for drug possession is completed in 2013.

Byrne, who was serving six months in jail, left behind a seven-month-old son.

His mother, Margaret Byrne, said in her victim impact statement earlier this week that she was the full-time carer of his son.

She said she had had a broken heart since her son’s death and was taking Valium.

“David didn’t deserve to die,” she said in a statement read out in court on Monday.

“He had his problems but he was an ordinary human being and should have been safe where he was in Mountjoy prison.”

She was in court with other family members yesterday to see her son’s killer jailed for five years, a sentence with which the family is understood to be disappointed.