A Dublin man who stabbed his life-long friend and neighbour to death after drinking and taking benzodiazepine has been sentenced to six years in prison.
Justice Robert Eagar at the Central Criminal Court said Paul Keating was at a medium risk of re-offending but he considered his efforts at rehabilitation and determination never to drink again when passing sentence.
Last October Paul Keating (50) of Harmonstown Road, Artane, Dublin 5 was found not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of Mark Richardson (49) on March 16th, 2017 at the deceased’s home. The five-day trial heard evidence that Keating stabbed Mr Richardson in the chest following an argument while both men were drinking.
The single stab wound severed the main pulmonary artery causing heavy bleeding. Keating offered to plead guilty to manslaughter ahead of the trial and Justice Eagar said his early plea was a further mitigating factor when considering sentence.
The judge noted that both Keating and Mr Richardson had been life-long friends and spent the two days prior to Mr Richardson’s death drinking together. Keating, he said, had developed a dependency on drink and drugs after he fell foul of a local criminal gang in his 20s and was shot in both legs.
He suffered from anxiety as a result and used alcohol and benzodiazepines to help relax in social situations.
He had previous convictions dealt with at the District Court and most of these, Justice Eagar said, resulted from his abuse of alcohol. He also noted the impact of Mr Richardson’s death on the deceased’s family, as described by his partner Aisling Kenny in a statement to the court.
Justice Eager went through Ms Kenny’s statement in which she described the deceased as her soulmate and added that they shared the “deepest love and respect for each other”. She said: “I was always a very outgoing and confident person, now I find myself spending much of my time at home due to anxiety and panic attacks.”
Ms Kenny said she now dreads doing everyday things like the weekly shop and has nightmares of what she saw on the night Mark was killed.
The mother-of-three said her children no longer have a male role model in their lives and her daughter will have no father to walk her down the aisle. “We raised the children together sharing the workload. Where our children were concerned we always worked as a team. Now I find myself in a position of loneliness. I wake every morning and give my all in the best interest of my children. It’s not easy, I can no longer turn to Mark for support. This has made me feel extremely vulnerable as a mother who only wants to do the very best for her children,” said Ms Kenny.
Justice Eagar further noted the impact on the deceased’s children, who Ms Kenny said were no longer “bright bubbly children” as a result of “having witnessed something that night that no child should ever see.”
Ms Kenny continued: “They saw the man they loved, cherished and adored lying in our garden covered in blood with garda cars, fire engines, an ambulance and paramedics trying desperately to save their dad’s life. The following morning they woke in my mother’s home and their first words were ‘when is daddy coming home’, that’s when myself and my brother had the most awful task of telling them that daddy had passed and had gone to heaven.”
Mark cherished and adored his children. “He was a real hands on dad and spent a lot of his time with the kids. My family is broken,” she concluded.
The court also noted that Keating had expressed his deep remorse to Mr Richardson’s family and said he feels “mentally and physically sick” every day as a result of what he did.
Justice Eagar said he would impose a sentence of 7 and-a-half years with the final 18 months suspended on the condition that Keating engage with any rehabilitation courses recommended by probation services. His sentence was backdated to March 16, 2017 when he first went into custody.