Killer apologises to family 'paralysed by grief and pain'

A 24-year-old man has been jailed for six years by a judge at the Central Criminal Court for the manslaughter of his sister's partner, after a stabbing in Co. Mayo in August, 2009.

Fintan McKenna (aged 24), of Woodlands, Balla, Castlebar, was convicted in November after a 10-day trial of the manslaughter of Francis 'Frankie' Heneghan in Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo on August 12, 2009.

Mr Heneghan (aged 24), an unemployed construction worker and father of three, bled to death in a laneway seconds after being stabbed eleven times including in the heart, lungs and neck.

At today’s sentencing hearing, Mr Justice John Edwards described how the tragic events of August 12 , 2009 resulted from "a lethal cocktail of drink, drugs and the use of a knife" by McKenna who had no previous criminal convictions.

Earlier in a summary of evidence in the case, Sergeant Gary Walsh said that McKenna was extremely intoxicated on the night that he stabbed Mr Heneghan and had been arrested by gardaí for public order offences shortly after he killed Mr Heneghan.

Sgt Walsh pointed out that that before he was stabbed, Mr Heneghan challenged McKenna to a fight down a laneway; but McKenna refused. It was after this "challenge" that McKenna armed himself with a knife which he later used to kill Mr Heneghan.

McKenna told gardaí in interviews he took the knife from a friend to protect himself because he was afraid of Mr Heneghan.

At the time of the killing, there was tension between the pair over the victim's treatment of McKenna's sister Grace who Mr Heneghan had two children with and was involved in a long-term relationship.

On the night of the killing Mr Heneghan had "run or lunged" into a laneway where McKenna was and began fighting. Mr Heneghan was later found bleeding to death there.

McKenna admitted to gardaí that he stabbed Mr Heneghan twice in the chest in self-defence after being assaulted by him in a lane in the centre of Kiltimagh, but insisted he couldn't have killed him.

However, in interviews with gardaí, McKenna who originally comes from Artane, north Dublin, admitted that he could not fully remember the events of the night because of the amount of alcohol he had consumed and his previous use of cannabis.

Defence counsel, Mr Martin Giblin SC for McKenna read a letter written by him in which he expressed his sorrow for his crime to the Heneghan family.

"Not a day passes without me thinking of what I have done," the letter read.

In a victim impact statement, read by Mr Heneghan's sister Yvonne Barrett, she spoke of the "raw pain, shock and disbelief that we feel as we mourn Frankie."

Ms Barrett explained how the events of August 12, 2009, had changed her families' life forever and how family members have "haunting nightmares about the horror Frankie suffered in his last moments."

She also explained that they suffer from post traumatic stress and are "paralysed by grief and pain".

She added that Mr Heneghan's grandfather died eight months after he was killed having "never recovered from the shock" and spoke about what a "wonderful dad" Mr Henegan was to his three children.

After summarising mitigating and aggravating aspects of the case which included the fact that McKenna had offered a plea to manslaughter at the outset of the case which was turned down by the prosecution, Judge John Edwards sentenced McKenna to six years in prison which was backdated to when he first went into custody on December 18, 2009.