11-year term for killing fiancée’s 3-month-old

A Wicklow man who has been found guilty of killing his ex-fiancée’s three-and-a- half month old baby seven years ago has been sentenced to 11 years.

Philip Doyle, aged 34, of Tinakilly, Aughrim, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to murdering Ross Murphy at 3 Creagh Demesne, Gorey, Co Wexford, on Apr 5, 2005.

But following a court ruling during the four-week trial, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy directed the jury to acquit Doyle of murder and to consider a verdict of manslaughter, as he ruled the prosecution had not made a case that the jury could find, without reasonable doubt, that Doyle murdered, which is an intention to kill or cause serious harm.