Man gets 16 years for unprovoked killing

A Louth man who killed a teenager in Dundalk over two years ago after he attacked, punched, and kicked the 18-year-old “like a rag doll”, bouncing his head off a road several times following an unprovoked altercation, has been sentenced to 16 years, with the final three suspended.

Unemployed father of three Douglas Ward, aged 36, with an address at Loughantarve, Knockbridge, Co Louth, had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Niall Dorr, on Oct 13, 2010, at the Central Criminal Court on the morning of his trial on Oct 30 last.

Mr Justice Paul Carney said that alcohol does not afford a defence and that an aggravating feature was that Ward had killed Mr Dorr while he was in Dundalk answering a bail hearing that morning.