A 26-year-old man has received a 10-year sentence for killing a Co Meath man and causing serious harm to another more than three years ago on St Stephen’s Day.
Derek Hutch will serve six years in jail for the manslaughter of Barry Maguire (23) after Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy suspended four years of his sentence to “keep light at the end of the tunnel” and ensure “the business of sentencing” was not about “locking someone up and throwing away the key”.
Hutch, a nephew of convicted Dublin criminal Gerry “The Monk” Hutch, had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of the carpenter on December 26th, 2007, at Milltown Estate in Ashbourne.
The 26-year-old Dubliner, with an address at Chapel Farm Avenue, Lusk, but who is originally from the inner city, stood accused with Alan Donohue (27) of Ashdale Crescent, Ashbourne, who also pleaded guilty.
Both Hutch and Donohue also pleaded guilty to a second count of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to Damien Carty on the same occasion.
Mr Maguire, who was from the Deerpark estate in Ashbourne, died having being stabbed in the back yards away from Ashbourne Garda station and just hours after spending Christmas with his family.
He suffered a single knife wound, which penetrated his heart and chest, after going to the aid of a group of his friends involved in an altercation with Hutch and Donohue at the entrance to the Milltown estate.
Mr Justice McCarthy also imposed a concurrent six-year sentence on Hutch, who has 39 previous convictions, for causing serious harm to Mr Carty.
He said the cumulative six-year term would run consecutively to sentences totalling 10 years which Hutch is serving for possession of a silenced semi-automatic pistol and for his involvement in a high-powered motorcycle theft ring.
In sentencing Hutch and Donohue, Mr Justice McCarthy said he had regard to the apologies penned by both defendants.