Man convicted of manslaughter born to drug addicts

A man who was convicted of manslaughter was taken from his drug-addicted mother as a baby and suffered the death of both his foster parents as a child, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.

Ross Allen, aged 26, from Clara, Co Offaly, was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter last June for his part in the killing of Christy Daly at Bog Lane in Clara. He will be sentenced on July 27.

At a sentencing hearing yesterday, Detective Sergeant Jer Glavin told Patrick Marrinan, prosecuting, that Mr Daly was beaten and shot to death on December 29, 2013. He said the drug gang that Allen worked for suspected Mr Daly had found a bag of cannabis belonging to them.

Allen’s part was to retrieve a shotgun he believed would be used to scare Mr Daly. He then acted as lookout while the other two men beat and then shot Mr Daly eight times. Allen said he did not know Mr Daly would be killed and told gardaí he believed he would get no more than a “hiding”.

Blaise O’Carroll, defending, said his client’s background was unsettled. His biological parents were drug addicts and as a newborn he was in “dire straits”. He was taken into care but did not find a permanent home until the age of seven. He became close to his foster father, who died of cancer on Allen’s ninth birthday. His foster mother died when he was a teenager.

After losing his job in 2012

his life took a turn. He was a cannabis user and without a proper income he became indebted to a local drug dealer. He would do odd jobs to repay his drug debt. One of those odd jobs was hiding the bag of cannabis on Bog Lane.

Since the killing of Mr Daly in 2013, Mr O’Carroll said his client has become involved in a landscaping business that is highly successful. He supplied a number of testimonies to the court about the high regard in which his client is held.