A CENTRAL Criminal Court jury has found a teenager not guilty of murdering his father but guilty of his manslaughter.
The jury reached its verdict by a 11-to-one majority following just over three hours of deliberations on day six of the trial.
Thomas Cunningham (19), of Santa Maria Commons, Ballinlough, Roscommon, denied murdering Thomas Brendan Cunningham (46) at their home on August 23rd, 2007.
He will be sentenced by Mr Justice Paul Butler on April 30th.
Cunningham resides in the UK and had returned to Ireland for his trial. Mr Justice Butler remanded him on continuing bail saying there were exceptional circumstances in the case. The judge indicated that it was “likely” that a custodial sentence would be imposed.
Defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC earlier told the jury that the accused accepted that he was responsible for the unlawful killing of his father but was not a murderer.
The jury had heard that the accused lived with his father and grandparents and that his father was an alcoholic. The deceased came home drunk on the day leading up to his death.
The accused was annoyed with his father, who had been sent to buy food. He grabbed his father and punched him outside the house. The deceased fell to the ground where the accused said he punched him twice more and kicked him.
The deceased was helped up but fell down again and was left in the garden overnight with a duvet and pillow. He was found dead the following morning.
During the trial the jury heard from the State Pathologist, Prof Marie Cassidy, that the deceased had had a high level of alcohol in his blood. She said the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head which was complicated by a crush injury to the chest.