Limerick man sentenced to life for murder

A 21-year-old Limerick man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of another youth during a fight outside a pub in the Southill area of the city in June 1999.

Christopher O'Callaghan, aged 21, of O'Malley Park, Southill, Limerick had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Michael Fitzpatrick, aged 19, of Yeats Avenue, Kincora Park, Southill outside the Olympic Arms pub on Roxboro Road on the night of June 25, 1999.

Michael Fitzpatrick died later in hospital from multiple stab wounds to his body.

After deliberating for four hours, a jury today unanimously convicted O’Callaghan of the murder of Michael Fitzpatrick.

There were cries and cheers of "Yes" from the family and friends of Michael Fitzpatrick at the verdict.

Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins then told O’Callaghan: "The jury having found you guilty, I have to impose the only sentence prescribed and permitted by law, and that is life imprisonment".

The jury had heard that O’Callaghan stabbed Fitzpatrick during a fist fight outside the Olympic Arms shortly after closing time on the June ‘99 night.

After sentence was passed, Michael Fitzpatrick’s mother, Mary said, "When Mikey was killed that night we had an automatic life sentence to serve.

"We’ve had to fight every bit of the way for justice for Mikey, but for the sake of my three other children, I’m glad that justice was done, and that the system worked, because it’s destroyed their lives."

The 10-day trial heard that there was no apparent motive for the killing and that no murder weapon was ever found.

O’Callaghan denied at all times that he pulled a knife during a fist fight with Michael Fitzpatrick.

The case was marked by allegations that O’Callaghan’s former solicitor, Mr John Devane of the Crescent, Limerick, had advised his client to lie to gardaí.

In legal argument in the absence of the jury, Mr Devane admitted that he told his client to answer "I can’t remember, but if I do I’ll tell you" to questions put to him by gardaí.

Replies to five of the questions were subsequently used as prosecution evidence against O’Callaghan.

Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins told Mr Devane he regarded the advice, which he said was "not proper" and should not have been given, "as a very serious matter".

Immediately after sentence was passed today, Mr Brendan Nix SC sought to leave to appeal on the grounds that the judge had erred in admitting the question and answer at the centre of the legal controversy to the trial, in allowing the matter to go to the jury and on the basis that the jury verdict was perverse.

Mr Justice O’Higgins formally refused leave to appeal, but granted legal aid in the event of an appeal.