A Bray man was sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter yesterday at the Central Criminal Court.
Richard O'Carroll (34) pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Keith Fortune (27) in the early hours of May 2nd, 1999, outside the William Dargan pub in Bray.
His guilty to manslaughter plea was entered and accepted by the State 10 days after a jury failed to reach a verdict when he was tried on a charge of murder.
O'Carroll, a father of one, with addresses at Greenpark Road, Bray, Co Wicklow, and Cois Sleibhe, Southern Cross Road, Bray, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Fortune, of Hazelwood Upper, Dargle Road, Bray.
Mr Fortune died as a result of an incident at the William Dargan Inn, Goldsmith Terrace, on Quinsboro Road in Bray.
He was in the company of a family celebrating the christening of a child earlier that day.
Supt Philip Moynihan, investigating officer in the case, told the court that O'Carroll had been convicted of the murder of Mr Fortune in December 2002 at the Central Criminal Court but this conviction was set aside by the Court of Criminal Appeal and a retrial was ordered.
At his retrial last January, a jury of five women and seven men failed to reach a verdict after 9 hours and 18 minutes.
Supt Moynihan told the court that "matters arose" after the first trial. At the close of the first trial in 2002, Supt Moynihan said the trial judge and jury were threatened by O'Carroll.
Addressing the court, Supt Moynihan said O'Carroll had 19 previous convictions including public order offences, misuse of drugs offences and an offence for assault causing actual bodily harm.
Before imposing sentence, Ms Justice Dunne said the matter was at the "extreme end of manslaughter".
She said in O'Carroll's probation report there was a "certain element of denial".
O'Carroll, Judge Dunne said, told his probation officer that he had been "unaware that Keith Fortune had been stabbed" the next day, and that "in a situation where Keith Fortune was stabbed four times including one that was of multiple thrusts" Judge Dunne said she had a "difficulty" regarding the "comment or reference made to a previous trial judge and jury".
The judge said it was "difficult to reconcile with expressions of regret" but it was better to "put that out of my mind when dealing with matters". Last month, when O'Carroll pleaded guilty to manslaughter, Mr Justice Carney told the court: "I am disqualifying myself because this man threatened me."
Yesterday when imposing sentence, Judge Dunne said she "had in mind a sentence of 12 years". However, taking into account mitigating factors, the judge imposed a sentence of 10 years.
This sentence, Judge Dunne said, was to take into consideration the 4½ years O'Carroll has already served.
During the nine-day trial last January in which the jury failed to reach a verdict, the court heard the accused told gardaí when arrested that he didn't "intend to stab" the deceased, allegedly saying: "It was him or me."
"Keith said something, a smart remark", O'Carroll allegedly told gardaí.
"I exchanged some words with him. Then I saw the knife come out of his sleeve. I quickly head-butted him. A scuffle followed and we wrestled around with the knife and Keith got stabbed."
The former partner of the accused man, Ms Stephanie Carroll, told the jury the deceased man allegedly slagged O'Carroll about their Down's Syndrome baby daughter in the pub.