A MAN was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for the manslaughter of drug dealer Yohan Verhoeven (31) whose body was found dumped in a ditch in Co Wicklow in September 2006.
Timothy Kavanagh (40) of Rathsallagh Park, Shankill had been convicted last December of the manslaughter of Mr Verhoeven, which occurred in July 2006.
Both men had spent the evening drinking and taking cocaine at a house Kavanagh shared with his partner and two of his five children.
Kavanagh maintained the killing occurred accidentally during a mock fight involving two samurai swords and a hunting knife.
He had asked the court to consider recommending he serve his sentence in the Midlands Prison as he believed he was in danger from associates of the dead man.
Det Sgt Fergus O'Brien told State counsel Paul Murray that Kavanagh had first insisted Mr Verhoeven had left Rathsallagh Park, in the early hours of July 11th, 2006.
But during a third interview Kavanagh admitted that he had stabbed Mr Verhoeven with a hunting knife during a mock fight, and had panicked and tied Mr Verhoeven's body with rope before driving it to an isolated road near Roundwood and dumping it in undergrowth.
Throughout July and August Mr Verhoeven remained missing to the distress of his partner and two children and his mother, Rose, and his siblings.
Mr Murray asked Judge Rory MacCabe to allow Rose Verhoeven to read a victim impact statement to the court.
However, after a brief adjournment to consider the statement Judge MacCabe ruled against it, saying there might be a difficulty with a section of it.
The section was not identified and Judge MacCabe told the court his decision did not undervalue in any way the loss the dead man's family had suffered.
Addressing the court, Barry Hickson SC for Kavanagh said the killing fell into a category similar to the case involving Wayne O'Donoghue, in that the killing had resulted from boisterous activity, and he asked that sentencing would reflect this. He pointed out that the sentence in the O'Donoghue case for the manslaughter of Robert Houlihan was four years.
Summing up, Judge MacCabe said he had to place the sentence in the range available for manslaughter, the maximum of which was life in prison.
He said both men had used drugs from a stash which Mr Verhoeven had kept for sale. But he said he had taken into consideration that the victim was a young man who was entitled to live his life and that parents should not have to expect to bury their children.
He also considered the evidence, the manner of death and the character of the defendant as well as a psychological report which had been offered on the defendant's behalf. Another factor he had considered was the likelihood of the defendant reoffending.
Judge MacCabe said that while he considered the offence as one of breathtaking recklessness he did not consider the maximum sentence appropriate.
The scale of the offence would put the sentence in the range of five years in prison.
In considering mitigating factors he had taken into account that Kavanagh was a father of five children, one of whom was handicapped. His current partner was pregnant with his sixth child, his third with her.
Against this, Judge MacCabe said Kavanagh had used a dangerous and deadly weapon, and that there were young children in the house when the killing occurred.
He also said there was a failure to acknowledge what he had done, an attempt to cover his tracks and "a callous dumping of the body to rot in the undergrowth".
Far from co-operating with gardaí he had actively attempted to hamper the investigation.
Overall Judge MacCabe said the mitigating factors were cancelled out by these factors and he imposed the five year sentence, refusing leave to appeal.
Judge MacCabe also refused to make a recommendation to the prison authorities that Kavanagh serve in any specific prison, remarking that as Kavanagh was already segregated for his own protection, the director of prison services would already be aware of Kavanagh's position.