A Dublin man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for killing his life-long friend over a drug debt.
Aidan Finnegan (31), of Whitestown Avenue, Hartstown, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 24-year-old Dara McCormack on February 11th, 2006.
Mr McCormack was shot in the back with a shotgun at Whitestown in Blanchardstown and died shortly afterwards in the arms of his father Thomas.
Thomas McCormack told the court that that his son named one of his best friends as his attacker in his dying moments.
He said he had knelt by his son when he found him injured and bleeding on the ground near their Blanchardstown home, and asked him: “Who shot you?”
Mr McCormack said Dara was struggling for breath as he replied: “Aidan, Aidan, Da.”
A postmortem examination by Professor Marie Cassidy found that Dara McCormack died from a shotgun blast to the back which caused blood loss and damaged most of the major internal organs including the heart and liver.
In April, Finnegan pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to the manslaughter of Mr McCormack. This plea was accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Det Sgt Michael Kennedy told the court that a Garda investigation in to the shooting led detectives to believe that Finnegan and another man had been looking for money from Dara McCormack as payment for drugs.
The court heard that Dara’s sister Tammy McCormack had received a text message from her brother asking if she had €200 to loan him.
He agreed that an analysis of Dara McCormack’s phone recovered a text message demanding money from a mobile number saved as “AD3”, which was subsequently linked to Aidan Finnegan.
Det Sgt Kennedy agreed with counsel for the defence, Patrick Marrinan SC, that Finnegan had offered to plead guilty to manslaughter three years ago, but the plea was not accepted at the time.
In passing sentence, Mr Justice Paul Carney said Finnegan had been “a bosom and lifelong friend” of the victim, but that this had not prevented him from taking part in a “vicious attack over a squalid drug debt”, which proved fatal.
Mr Justice Carney said he did not accept Finnegan’s “self-serving version of events”, and that it was clear from witnesses that he had been an “active participant” in the manslaughter of Dara McCormack.
The judge added that Mr Finnegan was “unfortunate in his friends” and did not have “a good character”, and that although his guilty plea would normally have entitled him to a significant discount, that this sentence would not be reduced because circumstances had forced the previous collapse of the trial last year.
Mr Justice Paul Carney sentenced Aidan Finnegan to 12 years in prison, backdated to January 30th, 2009.