A Dublin man was last night convicted of the manslaughter of his son by a jury in the Central Criminal Court.
A jury of seven men and five women took over 3 1/2 hours to reach a majority verdict that Michael O'Brien was guilty of the manslaughter of Mr Fergus O'Brien (28).
At the start of the four-day trial O'Brien (59), of Vernon Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to the murder of his son on October 16th, 1997.
Previously the court had heard that the O'Brien household had endured "chaos and mayhem" as a result of Mr Fergus O'Brien's drinking.
In a statement, O'Brien said that after an altercation with his son who had smashed an armchair through his bedroom window , gardai were called to the family home.
Shortly after that incident, O'Brien was dragged from his bed, where he lay with his wife, by his son who held a knife to his throat, demanding he apologise for ringing the Garda.
On the night before his death and after a lengthy drinking session, the deceased arrived home so drunk he was unable to open the front door with his key.
His father rose from his bed to let his son in and he made him tea in the kitchen before retiring. He later heard his son knocking on his bedroom door, demanding to know where his bottle of whiskey was, complaining that somebody had stolen it.
After finding the whiskey and going back to bed, the accused slept very badly and awoke in the morning, fetched a shotgun from the back of his car and discharged two shots into the back of his sleeping son.
The State Pathologist, Prof John Harbison, had told the court that after inspecting the body at the scene and a post-mortem, he concluded that the cause of death was a shotgun wound which lacerated the aorta.
O'Brien was released on bail until sentencing which will occur after reports have been submitted to the court within the next three weeks. The case will return for mention before the court next Thursday,