Knives and drugs an 'affliction in society', judge says as man gets life for cocaine-fuelled murder

The sister of the murder victim Patrick O’Connor, Deborah, today told the court that it is 818 days since her family last saw his face, “the last time we spoke, the last time we laughed together.”

Ms Justice Tara Burns today sentenced Mark Crawford (pictured) for the murder of Patrick ‘Pa’ O’Connor, saying that she has “no hesitation” in passing the mandatory life sentence for what she described as an act of “madness fuelled by drink and drugs.” File photo: Press 22

People carrying knives while drinking and taking drugs are an “affliction in Irish society” that results in far too many deaths, a Central Criminal Court judge has said as she passed sentence on a man convicted of a cocaine-fuelled murder in a quiet Limerick pub.

Ms Justice Tara Burns today sentenced Mark Crawford (aged 43) for the murder of Patrick ‘Pa’ O’Connor (aged 24), saying that she has “no hesitation” in passing the mandatory life sentence for what she described as an act of “madness fuelled by drink and drugs.”