A Sligo man accused of murdering an alcoholic former soldier was acquitted of murder but found guilty of manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court yesterday. Mark Sweeney (22). Finisklin Road, Sligo, denied murdering Paul Watters (45), Avondale, Sligo, at Stephen Mews, Sligo, on July 27th last year.
At the request of defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC, Mr Justice Paul Carney agreed to permit the defence of provocation. This allowed the jury to consider a verdict of manslaughter.
In his closing address Mr Grehan drew attention to the findings of a clinical forensic psychologist which placed Sweeney in the bottom 2 per cent of the population in terms of mental capability.
"This is a case, ladies and gentlemen, not of a cold-blooded killer intentionally killing somebody else. It is a case of two friends falling out and it escalated into a fight where one simply loses the rag. In my respectful submission the correct name for that is not murder, it is manslaughter," he said.
In his closing statement prosecuting counsel Tom O'Connell SC said the question of murder or manslaughter was the "bottom line" in the case. Mr O'Connell told the jury the blows which the accused "rained on the head of a drunk man" were not in proportion to the provocation he had received, and suggested the killing was murder. The jury spent two hours and 36 minutes before returning their unanimous verdict of guilty of manslaughter.
Previously the court heard that Mr Watters had been a member of the Defence Forces in the 1980s but had since developed a serious problem with alcohol.
Both Mr Watters and Sweeney were unemployed and drank with a number of acquaintances at various locations around Sligo city centre.
The judge remanded Sweeney in custody to appear before the court on January 23rd for sentencing.