Irish man's killer gets life for attack in US

A Massachusetts man has been jailed for life for killing a Galway plasterer one day after he was released from prison for assaulting…

A Massachusetts man has been jailed for life for killing a Galway plasterer one day after he was released from prison for assaulting the same victim.

A jury found Craig Powell (44), Dorchester, Massachusetts, guilty of beating 45-year-old Gerard Bannon to death in March 2002.

Prosecutors said that Powell was consumed with jealousy after an Irish employer gave Mr Bannon a job and apartment that Powell had sought.

He killed Mr Bannon with a blunt instrument at Mr Bannon's Dorchester home the day after he was released from a month-long stay in prison for assaulting the same victim.

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Mr Bannon, originally from Clarinbridge, Co Galway, emigrated to the US in 1985 and had lived for many years in Dorchester, a Boston suburb with a large Irish working-class population.

He had been hired as a plasterer by Mr Patrick McGuire, an Irish-born landlord and construction company owner. As part of the agreement, Mr McGuire gave him an apartment, which enraged Powell.