Man ‘snapped’ and killed drinking companion

The last words of a Dubliner who was killed by his friend after a day out drinking in Cork were recorded on a 999 call — “Drinking spirits. He just turned around and snapped. My friend did it.”

The victim was slumped on the ground at St Patrick’s Quay when a homeless woman came to his assistance, phoned for an ambulance, and handed her phone to him to make that comment to the operator.

Those last words of 36-year-old Keith Flanagan were recalled as his friend, Ciarán Moran, aged 28, of no fixed address and originally from Shankill, Dublin, was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment with the last two suspended for manslaughter in October 2013.