A Dublin man walked free from the Central Criminal Court after being given a suspended sentence for the killing of his alcoholic son.
Michael O'Brien (59), of Vernon Avenue, Clontarf, had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter but not guilty to the murder of his son, Fergus O'Brien (28), on October 16th, 1997.
On the night before his death and after a lengthy drinking session, the deceased arrived home so drunk he was unable to open the front door of his house with his key.
His father rose from his bed to let his son into their home and he made him tea in the kitchen before retiring. He later heard his son knocking on his bedroom door demanding to know where his bottle of whiskey was, complaining that somebody had stolen it.
After finding the whiskey for his son and going back to bed, the accused slept very badly and in the morning, fetched a shotgun from the back of his car and discharged two shots into the back of his sleeping son.
A jury of seven men and five women took nearly 3 1/2 hours to reach an 11-to-one verdict of manslaughter. Sentencing O'Brien to seven years' imprisonment, suspended with a bond of £100 to keep the peace, Mr Justice Smith asked whether it was a case where a imprisonment was appropriate. "I don't think so," he said.
The jury had found O'Brien guilty of a "reprehensible offence", Mr Justice Smith said, "but he was provoked to such an extent over a long period of time that he lost control of his senses, that he did what no parent would do in normal circumstances".
The son began drinking at 16 and began physically assaulting his family and behaving unacceptably, he said. The family were "afraid to go on holiday in case they came back to the house and it would be destroyed." They "should have put him out of the house years ago and made him fend for himself". The judge accepted O'Brien's life since the death had been filled with "guilt and remorse" because of this "very serious offence", but O'Brien was "almost 60 years of age and had never been in trouble before. He worked all his life and [his then] area manager described him as the best representative at the time.
"He suffered a lot and will continue to suffer," he said. Earlier, Det Insp Paul Scott agreed that O'Brien came from a "very respectable, very desirable, attractive area of Dublin". The O'Briens were the last people he would expect to be involved in a murder inquiry.
A counselling psychotherapist, Ms Annette Healy, who treated O'Brien following the death of his son, said he had sought therapy because he had been "having difficulty coping with life. He frequently described his daily life as a nightmare". Asked by Mr Barry White SC, defending, whether O'Brien expressed remorse or shame for his actions, Ms Healy replied: "In several sessions he talked about the shame and regret and for not having helped his son more when he was alive to help in different ways."
His son's death had a huge impact on him" and he had trouble "dealing with that complicated loss", she said.