Judge gives man eight years for killing fellow Mountjoy inmate

A prisoner who killed another inmate in Mountjoy jail by striking him on the head with a sock stuffed with batteries has been handed an eight-year sentence.

Alan Smith with an address at Ballybough Road, Dublin, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the manslaughter of 26-year-old David Byrne, who died on July 3, 2009.

The 34-year-old said he attacked the deceased because he had stolen his remote control.

The judge suspended the last three years of the sentence.