Victim's family express grief at murderer's sentencing

The family of the 25-year-old Fermoy man who was murdered at his flat in Cork told today how they never imagined their loved one would meet such a gruesome end.

“The horrific death that John met will haunt us for all the days of our lives,” Mary McManus, sister of the late John McManus, said on behalf of the family today.

Patrick McManus is haunted by the day he went to identify the battered body of his son in a mortuary.

His mother Geraldine still remembers the day her son, John, was born and finds it hard to think that he was killed in his own home.

John’s sister, Ciara, feels guilty that she passed his flat on her way home without knowing that his dead body was under the bed in his home.

John’s brother Conor described the guilt he feels at smiling or laughing at anything without his brother being alive to share it.

The family said John had a massive sense of humour and said planned to write his life story under the title: “I Didn’t Do It” but he didn’t know how the story would end.

The McManus family said his end came long before he expected it.

Mr Justice Paul Carney imposed the mandatory life sentence on John Walsh (aged 45) originally from Ballinlough, Cork, and more recently of Cork Street, Mitchelstown for murdering John McManus in October 2008 at the young man’s flat at Verdon Place, Wellington Road, Cork.

The jury in the murder trial returned a unanimous verdict of guilty yesterday after deliberating for almost four three hours.

The body of the late Mr McManus was found dumped in a field in Kerry a week after he was murdered in Cork.

There were more than 100 wounds to his body, 56 of them to his head and neck.

Walsh had claimed during the seven-week trial that he had fought with the deceased and hit him in self-defence but Walsh had no injuries when he was medically examined.