Mother of dead teen tells court of anguish

The parents of a teenager killed in a drunken brawl outside a nightclub spoke today of the devastating impact his death has had on their lives.

At a sentence hearing for three men convicted in connection with his death, Dublin’s Circuit Criminal Court was told about the pain and anguish Brian Murphy’s family have endured since he died.

Mr Murphy, 18, was kicked and beaten to death after a student night at Club Anabel in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, on August 31, 2000.

His parents, Denis and Mary, kept a dignified silence as they sat through a marathon 34-day trial, held in the full glare of the media spotlight as the accused had all attended one of the country’s most prestigious schools.

Today it was the turn of Dermot Laide, Desmond Ryan and Sean Mackey, all former pupils of the exclusive Blackrock College, to hear what they had to say, how they felt when they were told that their son was dead and their feelings of anger with the country’s justice system.

All three men stood trial for violent disorder and manslaughter.

Laide, 22, from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, was the only one convicted of both charges.

Mackey, 23, from Foxrock, Co Dublin, and Ryan, 23, from Dalkey, Co Dublin, were found guilty of violent disorder. Ryan was cleared of manslaughter and the jury failed to agree a verdict on Mackey’s manslaughter charge. He will not face a retrial.

Mary Murphy described her anger at the way their trial has been conducted over the last two months.

“I have felt under attack in this courtroom over the last seven weeks,” she told the court after handing the judge a photograph of her son.

“All the people here had a voice. Brian and our family had no voice and that was why I felt surrounded and under attack.

“I have felt brainwashed into thinking that what happened to Brian was his own fault. The repetitive nature of the evidence has desensitised us.

“I felt caught in a battle with each side trying to win points. Brian becomes lost.”

She said that the fact her family had been forced to revisit their pain three and a half years later was “unacceptable”.

Mrs Murphy expressed frustration that the tragedy experienced by her family had been portrayed as in some way comparable to the families of those in the dock.

She said the opinion of the general public seemed to be that any one of their children could have been involved in this attack and drew attention to one newspaper headline which implied her son had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I was not there when Brian was savagely beaten to death,” she said addressing the three defendants.

“If I had been there you would not have succeeded in your quest to attack my baby because you would have had to kill me first.”

She said she could not describe how it felt to see her son lying dead on a hospital bed with his two front teeth smashed or how it felt to see her child lying in a coffin with her rosary beads in his hands.

Laide, Mackey and Ryan sat with their heads bowed as she described her son as her best friend and asked where was her son now.