Man faces sentencing over knife attack on family

A 24-year-old father of one, who attacked four members of a family with his ornamental knife, will be sentenced next week for killing one of them and harming the others.

Dubliner David Brannock was last month cleared of murdering Jason ‘Jasper’ Flannery but found guilty of the manslaughter of the father of three on September 13, 2012, at St Joseph’s Way, Poppintree, Ballymun.

A Central Criminal Court jury also convicted him of causing serious harm to the deceased’s brother-in-law, John O’Neill, and assault causing harm to Mr Flannery’s daughter, Jade Byrne, and son, Anthony Byrne. He was cleared of assault causing harm to their mother, Claire Byrne.

Brannock, of St Joseph’s Way, Ballymun, had pleaded not guilty to all five offences, which followed Jade Byrne’s Junior Certificate result celebrations.

At his sentencing hearing yesterday, Garda Maria Moran read out victim impact reports prepared by the survivors of the attack and Mr Flannery’s widow, Claire Byrne, who said she had been on antidepressants since he was killed.

“I relive that night every night,” she said.

She said she had met him when she was 15 and they had their first child together when she was 17. “He was always there for me emotionally,” she said. “I depended on him so much for everything.”

She said her family couldn’t return home to Cairn Court, Ballymun, since that night as it was near Brannock’s home. The family now live with a large number of relatives.

“Our lives and my life will never be the same,” she said.

Mr Justice Carroll Moran yesterday said he would take time to consider documents handed in by both sides. They included a letter written by the mother of Brannock’s child.

He adjourned sentencing until December 11.