Man pleads guilty to brother's manslaughter

A Cork man pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his brother after stabbing him six times in the chest and leg during a row at their family home.

Patrick "Pa" Lynch (aged 26), of Fairfield Square, Farranree, Cork City changed his plea on day nine of his trial for the murder of 27-year-old Peter Lynch Jnr at Fairfield Square, Farranree, Cork City during the row in the early hours of August 3, 2006.

Mr Justice Barry White thanked the jury of seven men and five women for their attention during the trial and excused them from further jury service for the next 10 years.

He postponed sentencing until July 2nd to allow for the preparation of victim impact and probation statements.

During the trial the jury heard that Patrick Lynch had been fishing with friends of the day of his brother's death. He told gardaí he had four cans of beer during the afternoon.

In interviews shown to the court Patrick Lynch told gardaí that he brought his friends back to the house he shared with his parents and younger sibling because they were "breeding a Staff".

He had a bitch Staffordshire bull terrier and his friend had a male dog.

Mr Lynch said he had not continued drinking although his friends had had a couple of beers. He said they had left no later than 11am.

The court already heard from the accused man's father, Mr Peter Lynch Snr who told Ms Isobel Kennedy SC, prosecuting, that Patrick had been "hyper" all day.

He told the court he was woken after midnight by "shouting and roaring" from the back garden where Patrick was entertaining his friends.

The accused and victim's mother, Mrs Susan Lynch told the Court that Patrick and his friends seemed drunk and described a row developed about a bottle of vodka that a female friend said Patrick had taken.

Mr Lynch Snr told Ms Kennedy that he called Peter Jnr, who lived with his pregnant partner and their young child, after making an initial call to gardaí because things got too rowdy and he was good at "calming" his brother.

Peter arrived a short time later and went through to the kitchen to the kitchen to talk to Patrick before going out to the back garden to check on the family dogs. Patrick followed him out.

Mrs Lynch said she thought they were just talking as usual. "I didn't think anything serious was going to happen."

She said that Patrick was very intoxicated. After the incident he was so aggressive to gardaí who arrived on the scene that he was arrested for public order offences.

Mrs Lynch told Ms Kennedy that a fight developed between the brothers and she saw Peter Jnr fall. Patrick had taken a wooden handled knife and stabbed his brother repeatedly in the chest and leg area. One witness described him shouting: "I hope you die, I hope you die, you better die."

As Peter Jnr lay bleeding, Mrs Lynch described holding his head to stop him hitting it off the wall while Patrick and her husband tried to revive him. She was still holding it when the ambulance crew arrived.

Patrick Lynch was described as completely out of control and unable to recognise his parents when they tried to break up the fight. Later, in front of gardaí and members of his family he punched his hand through a glass pane in the back door, sustaining cuts which later required hospital treatment.

Mr Lynch Snr told Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC, defending, that Patrick had been involved in a fatal car accident at the age of 15 which had a profound effect on him.

Patrick Lynch told gardaí that he had not been taking medication prescribed to him after the accident at the time of his brother's death.