A father-of-five who beat his mother's partner to death during a "vicious and sustained" assault - during which he repeatedly dropped a couch on his defenceless victim's head - has been jailed for 13 years by a judge at the Central Criminal Court.
But the judge also noted what he said were genuine expressions of remorse by Nash and his decision to take responsibility for the killing by pleading guilty to manslaughter. Mr Justice MacGrath imposed a sentence of 14 years with the final 12 months suspended for two years on the condition that Nash work with the probation services.
Mr Nash initially went to Mr Ustic, who was in bed, and struck him a number of times causing a cut to Mr Ustic's upper left cheek. Matters continued in a "calm and normal way" the judge said but that night Mr Nash, Mr Ustic, Ms Fenton and another man bought and drank "considerable amounts" of alcohol.Shortly after 8pm they drove to High Street in Skibbereen, where Mr Ustic and Ms Fenton lived, but Mr Ustic was incapable of getting out of the car.
Nash punched the victim and former State pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy noted a laceration above the eye that could have been caused by a bottle. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, chest and neck with alcohol consumption a contributing factor. Professor Cassidy said the level of alcohol in Mr Ustic's system would have impacted his ability to defend himself.
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Source: IrishMirror - 🏆 4. / 98 Read more »