Egg-throwing incident sparked manslaughter, court hears

A court has heard how an egg throwing incident in Dublin's East Wall escalated within minutes to manslaughter.

Conor Duffy (aged 18) of St Mary's Road, East Wall shot Aidan O'Kane in December 2008 and will have his sentence for the killing finalised this Friday.

He was cleared by a jury of murder.

Mr O'Kane was shot in the chest by Mr Duffy down a laneway after he chased a gang of teenagers who had thrown eggs at his house.

There was evidence from his son that the 50-year-old mechanic had been harassed for months and with a balaclava and a baton he had decided this Sunday evening to confront the youths responsible.

The accused Conor Duffy initially ran away but returned to the scene with a revolver he had found in undergrowth, later telling gardaí he'd only intended to shoot the mechanic in the leg.

He said the pair had been on good terms but fell out when Aidan O'Kane wrongly accused him of stealing a bike and made threats towards him.

In a victim impact statement read out to the court, Barry O'Kane spoke of his extremely vulnerability since his oldest brother's death.

The prosecution said that the offence is at the upper end of the scale. The judge will consider the submissions and finalise sentencing on Friday.