Man convicted of fatal stabbing

A cut-throat killer has been convicted for murder and jailed for life in the Central Criminal Court.

John Cleary, (aged 24), of St Mark’s Avenue, Clondalkin, Dublin admitted beating and then fatally stabbing Kenneth Foley, (aged 45), at Jamestown Court in Inchicore but he pleaded not guilty to murder.

Mr Foley, a single man with an address at Tyrconnell Road, Inchicore, was found with his throat cut on the steps of the "old folks complex" at Jamestown Court in the early hours of January 15, 1999.

The deputy state pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy said he was "highly intoxicated" at the time of his death and would have been incapable of defending himself.

Cleary claimed that earlier Foley had called him a scumbag and a robber when he offered to walk with him down the road. Cleary’s defence claimed that this amounted to provocation, because ever since a serious sexual assault when he was 14 years old, Cleary had flown into a rage if he was verbally abused.

But after over three hours deliberating, the jury rejected the defence of provocation. Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins immediately sentenced John Cleary to the mandatory term of life imprisonment.

This was a retrial of John Cleary. In the first trial last year, a jury failed to agree on the issue of murder or manslaughter but it convicted Cleary of the robbery of a gold signet ring and a watch from Ken Foley during the same incident.

Today, Mr Justice O’Higgins backdated the life sentence to February 1 2002, the date when Cleary was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for the robbery.

His trial heard that Cleary admitted to gardai that he waited outside a flat in Jamestown Court where he had been drinking with three other men, including Kenneth Foley, and that when Mr Foley emerged, Cleary began beating and kicking him.

Another man, Don Knowles - who is wanted by gardai for serious assault in connection with the incident - joined in the kicking, and Cleary began swinging at Ken Foley with a small kitchen knife. When Mr Foley fell to the ground, Cleary cut his throat.