A Kilkenny man, Sean Bambrick, was yesterday sentenced in the Central Criminal Court to life imprisonment after being found guilty of the murder last year of Mr Michael O'Sullivan (44).
Bambrick (23), of Cypress Green, Loughboy, Kilkenny, was given a mandatory life sentence after the unanimous verdict was returned by the jury yesterday.
Bambrick had denied the murder of Mr O'Sullivan, of no fixed address, who was found dead in the grounds of Mill Hill Holy Missionary Fathers, Waterford Road, Kilkenny, on May 1st, 1996.
Defence counsel, Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, was granted leave to appeal by Mr Justice Barr which he applied for on the grounds of a "perverse verdict" having been returned by the jury.
In the case, Bambrick claimed he killed his victim because he had made a sexual advance which awakened memories of past abuse. He claimed that he had struck the victim in an angered frenzy with a wooden stake because he thought his life was in danger.
The court heard from Mr MacEntee that the sexual pass had brought back memories of abuse suffered by Bambrick at the hands of his eldest brother's homosexual lover, causing him to lose all control on the night of the killing.
The defendant told the court that Mr O'Sullivan had told him he had always fancied him, before coming up behind him and rubbing his genitals against him. Mr Bambrick had "flipped", picking up a wooden tree stake and striking the victim repeatedly, kicking him in the body and pouring a bottle of cider over his head. He told the jury that he had said to himself: "No bastard will ever do that to me again".
He estimated that he had consumed seven or eight pints that day. Bambrick had accompanied Mr O'Sullivan to the grounds of St Joseph's (Mill House) after meeting him outside a chip shop. The accused said he went with him to the grounds after purchasing a bottle of cider at the request of Mr O'Sullivan. Bambrick had only taken a "little swig" when the alleged advance was made.
The court heard that Bambrick had been sexually abused regularly as a teenager by his brother's lover over the course of two years when he went to live with them in the south of England in 1989 at the age of 14. His brother, Paul, had brought him to England from a children's home in Co Tipperary where he had been placed after their mother left home.
In his evidence, Bambrick said he had suffered ongoing sexual abuse by the man from the first week he arrived in England. The man was subsequently convicted of committing gross acts of indecency against Bambrick.
Under questioning by Mr Giollaisa O Lideadha, for the defence, the clinical director of the Eastern Health Board, Dr Brian McCaffrey, told the court that Bambrick had the emotional age of a five-year-old. He also displayed an intelligence which placed him in the bottom 5 per cent of the population. A person who had suffered sexual abuse could react in a violent and uncontrolled manner if approached again with a sexual advance, said Mr McCaffrey.
In the report carried on Thursday, April 23rd, of the trial for murder of Sean Bambrick of Kilkenny at the Central Criminal Court it was stated that the accused had been brought to England by his brother, Patrick. This was incorrect. It was another brother, Paul, who was named in court as having brought Sean Bambrick to England. The error is regretted.