Teenager who fatally stabbed man in Dublin street jailed for 13 years for murder
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the teen, who cannot be named because he was a minor when he first came before the courts, murdered Aaron Keating (43) as an 'angry aggressive youth acting in a drug rage'.
Although he pleaded guilty to murder, the youth is not subject to a mandatory life sentence due to his age at the time of the offence.
Mr Justice McDermott said he had to take into account the defendant's age, lack of maturity and the need to rehabilitate young offenders. He sentenced him to 15 years with the final two years suspended for two years on a number of conditions.
READ MORE
The now 19-year-old was one month short of his 18th birthday when he
murdered Mr Keating on June 13th, 2023 at Main Street, Ongar, Dublin 15.
Mr Justice McDermott said it had been a sunny Tuesday afternoon when the defendant and a group of youths were hanging around Main Street smoking cannabis.
Mr Keating, who had mental health difficulties all his life, was a frequent visitor to the area and was known to all the youths.
CCTV footage showed an altercation between Mr Keating and the defendant which prompted the youth to run to a nearby stairwell where he had stashed a knife for self-protection. He returned within 90 seconds of the first altercation and pursued Mr Keating across the road despite one of his friends telling him to stop.
The defendant attempted to stab Mr Keating but missed before he 'made another lunge', the judge said, causing the fatal wound to the abdomen. A pathologist found the cause of death to be haemorrhage and shock due to the single stab wound.
Mr Justice McDermott noted that the defendant attacked his victim openly, in a public place, presenting a 'terrifying spectacle' to shoppers, including women and children.
The defendant fled the scene, disposed of the knife and made no attempt to assist the dying man, the judge said.
Mr Keating was loved by his family and is deeply missed, the judge said. His life was 'needlessly and violently taken', he said.
The judge said drug use had 'a dominating role' in the murder and in causing a disintegration in the youth's education. Drug rehabilitation, he said, will be a factor in efforts to prevent the teenager reoffending. The defendant is currently considered at a high risk of reoffending if he were returned to a community setting within 12 months.
Mr Justice McDermott set a headline sentence of 25 years but reduced that to 21 to account for the defendant's age. He further reduced the sentence to 15 years after considering mitigating factors including the teenager's guilty plea and his 'early and consistent expression of remorse, which appears to be genuine and comprehensive'.
When sentencing children, the Supreme Court has found that it is preferable to suspend part of the sentence to encourage rehabilitation. Mr Justice McDermott suspended the final two years on condition that the defendant keep the peace for two years after release, address his addiction needs with the probation services and accept any treatment recommended. He must also participate in a drug rehabilitation programme and any mental health services recommended by the probation services.
The defendant entered his plea of guilty to murder following a Supreme Court ruling last year that, despite now reaching adulthood, he will not face a mandatory life sentence because he was a child when he committed the offence.
The
teen previously sought to halt the proceedings against him because, having aged out while awaiting trial,
he faced a mandatory life sentence if convicted of murder.
However, following a recent Supreme Court ruling, judges now have discretion when sentencing a person who committed murder while a child, regardless of what age they are when they come before the courts.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sunday World
an hour ago
- Sunday World
Two gardaí suspended and charged with corruption offences after alleged ‘dodgy' drugs search
It follows a lengthy investigation by the anti-corruption unit (GACU) into the search. Two gardaí are due to appear before a court in the midlands in the coming weeks, charged with corruption offences linked to a drugs search. It follows a lengthy investigation by the anti-corruption unit (GACU) into the search. It has been a torrid period for An Garda Síochána, with several serving gardaí or former members of the force appearing before the courts. In the week when Justin Kelly was named as the successor to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, the force is also reeling from a damning report that claimed some road policing officers displayed a 'blatant disregard' and were 'openly hostile' to carrying out their duties. The latest development involving the two gardaí and the drugs search comes after GACU was investigating if they had been involved in perverting the course of justice. One of the suspects is a sergeant, and the other is a rank-and-file officer. Both are male and have many years' combined service in the force. The allegation is that the search was done for the benefit of the suspects or someone else The sergeant has been involved in a number of high-profile drug-dealing investigations. The other officer has been suspended for some time, while the sergeant was first suspended from duty on Monday after the pair were arrested by appointment. They were charged with the corruption offences and released on station bail. News in 90 Seconds - Saturday, August 2 'This matter relates to an alleged dodgy drugs search,' a source said. 'The allegation is that the search was done for the benefit of the suspects or someone else. The search was not designed to take drugs off the streets.' It is expected that the case will be sent forward to the circuit court, which has wider sentencing powers than the district court. A garda spokesman said: 'As part of an ongoing investigation by the Garda Anti- Corruption Unit, two gardaí based in the north-west region were arrested, and following directions from the DPP have been charged in relation to alleged corruption offences. Both gardaí have been suspended.' Ninety-four gardaí are currently in total suspension across the country, but most of those suspensions are not for alleged corruption matters. An Garda Síochána's anti-corruption unit is involved in a number of separate investigations, including a probe into a now suspended Dublin-based garda over an alleged plot on the Dark Web to have his ex-partner murdered. He has not been arrested. A number of gardaí have appeared in court in other high-profile criminal cases in recent weeks Last week, MMA fighter Charlie Ward (44) and a 57-year-old other man were returned for trial, accused of corruption offences involving 'confidential' garda information and helping to pervert the course of justice. That followed an investigation by the anti-corruption unit, and the DPP directed trial on indictment at Dublin Circuit Court. When outgoing commissioner Drew Harris set up the anti-corruption unit, he said there was no reason why Ireland should be any different from other European countries when it came to dealing with corrupt and criminal activities of a small number of individual officers. Separately, a number of gardaí have appeared in court in other high-profile criminal cases in recent weeks. The cases include former garda Shane Flanagan (39), with an address in Co Clare, was jailed for seven years this week for impersonating a female colleague online and encouraging strangers to go to her house to rape her and her young daughters.
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Irish Times
India's embassy in Dublin warns citizens of increasing violent attacks in Ireland
Indian citizens have been warned they are at increasing risk of being attacked in Ireland. The alert follows a number of recent violent incidents. India's embassy in Dublin has issued an advisory to its citizens urging them to avoid isolated areas and to be generally more conscious of their security and surroundings. 'There has been an increase in the instances of physical attacks reported against Indian citizens in Ireland recently. The embassy is in touch with the authorities concerned of Ireland in this regard,' the note states. READ MORE It includes an emergency number for anyone in need of assistance. 'All Indian citizens in Ireland are advised to take reasonable precautions for their personal security and avoid deserted areas, especially in odd hours,' the embassy said. [ 'A lot of Indians are being targeted': Man suffers cheekbone fracture after attack by gang of teenagers in Dublin ] The warning comes two weeks after an Indian man was attacked in Tallaght by a group that stripped him of some of his clothing and subjected him to a beating. He suffered two large wounds to his forehead, a broken nose, black eyes and bruises to his legs and arms. The victim, an IT worker aged in his 40s, was left wandering bloodied in a residential area with no trousers after being targeted by a group of teenagers in Kilnamanagh. He was walking to the Vinayaka Hindu temple in Kingswood, following a Google Maps route, when the group surrounded him, taunting him and questioning why he had come to Ireland, before setting upon him. Local resident Jennifer Murray spotted the victim as she was driving in the area and stopped to go to his aid. She gave him a blanket and waited with him for an ambulance to arrive. After the attack, videos of the man were posted on social media, along with false claims he had exposed himself. The posts were amplified by far-right agitators and garnered hundreds of thousands of views within days. Later that day, also in Tallaght, a young man from India who is attending college in Dublin, was attacked by a group of teenagers in Seán Walsh Park at about 6pm. He suffered a broken nose. Indians in Ireland have said there have been other attacks, which have not been reported to gardaí, but details of which were shared on community WhatsApp groups. Both the attacks in Tallaght are being investigated by gardaí, who have appealed for witnesses to come forward. In reply to queries, An Garda Síochána said it 'takes hate crime very seriously' with each offence 'professionally investigated and victims supported during the criminal justice process'. The Garda has said hate-related crime was underreported. 'An Garda Síochána continues to encourage any victim of any crime to report this to An Garda Síochána including any indication that the crime may have a hate motivation,' it said. 'The increase in reporting of such incidents has been noted in each year of reporting, which is positive.' Garda data shows a 12 per cent increase in the number of hate-related incidents reported in the State between 2022 and 2023. Most of these were linked to the victims' ethnicity or nationality.
Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
How former GAA manager Séamus ‘Banty' McEnaney made over €200m from housing refugees and the homeless
Almost seven years ago the Government started moving newly arrived asylum seekers into hotels and B&Bs on a temporary basis because the State's direct provision system was full. By early 2019 almost 6,600 international protection applicants were living in the Republic. A few hundred of these were living in emergency accommodation. Today almost 33,000 applicants are living in State-provided accommodation with 25,000 in emergency accommodation. An average of 1,000 people are arriving in Ireland each month seeking protection each month, according to the Department of Justice. A letter from the secretary general of the Department of Integration to the Public Accounts Committee reveals that the Government first approached a company called Brimwood Ltd in September 2018 for help in securing additional accommodation for asylum seekers. READ MORE The department contacted Brimwood on a recommendation from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, which had previously used property provided by the company, according to the letter sent in 2023. [ Séamus McEnaney family group was paid €24m in three months for homeless and refugee housing ] It details how Brimwood Ltd subsequently entered into contracts with the Reception and Integration Agency, now the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS), 'either directly in its own hotels or indirectly by sourcing accommodation in other hotels and guest houses that they lease from the owners through their own contractual arrangements.' Brimwood was the only intermediary used by IPAS between 2018 and 2021 to source this housing. Seven years later, Brimwood Unlimited continues supplying accommodation for asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees across the country, earning €24 million in State contracts last year. The company received €5.6 million in IPAS payments during the first three months of the year. The directors of Brimwood are Séamus McEnaney (57) and his daughters Sarah (26) and Laura (32). It is an unlimited company so it does not have to publish financial accounts where it might show the profits it makes. Companies owned by the former Monaghan GAA manager and his wider family were also paid more than €14 million for housing asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees in the first three months of this year. There were paid additional sums of more than €10 million for providing accommodation to homeless people to Dublin City Council in the same period. Overall the family companies are estimated to have been paid more than €200 million for the provision of emergency accommodation since late 2018. Séamus 'Banty' McEnaney, born and raised in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, was the youngest of five brothers in a family of nine children. He earned the nickname 'Banty' from his father who declared his youngest son was a 'banty hen' because of the barrel chest he had as a child due to poor health. McEnaney left school at 11 and started working in a local bar. Within a few years, he was holding down a day job in the local chicken house and worked nights at Oasis outside the town, described in the 1980s as Ireland's biggest nightclub. A few years after opening Banty's Bar in 1987, McEnaney and his brothers purchased the Fiddler's Elbow, a popular local restaurant and nightclub in Carrickmacross. The group of brothers continued to build their property portfolio through the 1990s and early 2000s. McEnaney and his brothers also played for the local Corduff GAA football team; his brother Pat went on to become a high-profile GAA referee. One former schoolmate of the brothers recalls how closely knit the family were – 'the joke was if you kicked one of the McEnaneys, all five would come limping after you'. Séamus, who was always the frontman in business dealings, has 'great charisma and energy' but also an 'unshakeable self-confidence', says the former schoolmate. In 2005, shortly after purchasing the Westenra Arms Hotel in Monaghan town, McEnaney took over as manager of Monaghan GAA football team, a position he held until 2010. After a two-year stint managing Meath, McEnaney managed Wexford in 2016 but stepped down the following year. He returned to Monaghan, managing the senior team from 2019 to 2022. 'He lit a fire under that team after 15 years of being in the doldrums,' says the schoolmate. 'He was a great motivator but not a great strategist. There's still a question whether he was a successful manager – he was and he wasn't.' Then Monaghan manager Séamus McEnaney talks to the squad after a game in 2001. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho The McEnaney family was badly hit by the recession. In 2011 a High Court judgment of almost €13.5 million was secured by AIB against McEnaney. The debt, McEnaney said at the time, related to development land. Shortly before the Covid pandemic, news of the McEnaney family's rapidly growing earnings through IPAS contracts began to spread. Football fans at one preseason Monaghan game shouted abuse from the stands at McEnaney, according to one prominent figure in Ulster GAA, speaking on condition of anonymity. 'It's massively changed how people see him,' says the GAA figure. 'Making money off the back of this would really irk people. There's obviously people who have a gripe about him doing well with this. The family always drive big cars and are in corporate boxes; they're not afraid to splash it – and that creates begrudgery.' The State's almost exclusive reliance on private companies, such as those owned by the McEnaney family, to house international protection applicants, is unusual in a European context. A 2022 report from the European Asylum Support Office found most EU countries use State-owned centralised systems or mixed models – State authorities and civil society or private operators – to house asylum seekers. In the UK, state contracts are a source of great wealth for private operators. In May, Graham King, founder of the migrant-housing company Clearsprings Ready Homes, acquired the unofficial title of Britain's 'asylum billionaire' after he joined the Sunday Times Rich List of new billionaires. Nick Henderson, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council Relying on private companies to secure housing for asylum seekers is 'significantly eroding public confidence' in our asylum system, says Irish Refugee Council chief executive Nick Henderson. 'We don't need our own asylum billionaire,' he says. 'These people are providing a service and they're making money from it but it's not necessarily their fault. The fault ultimately lies with the State.' The lack of independent inspections of these centres is also concerning, says Henderson. Since January 2024, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) has carried out periodic inspections of permanent IPAS centres, which represent just 11 per cent of the 324 centres across the State. Standards in emergency accommodation vary widely, from tented accommodation, to private rooms in hotels and dormitory-style accommodation in repurposed office buildings. A spokesman for the Department of Justice said it was involved in 'regular unannounced inspections of the accommodation centres to encourage compliance'. 'People residing in emergency accommodation tend to experience poorer standards' and live in 'more random or unsuitable locations', says Henderson. Spending millions of euro on this housing is 'ultimately a dead spend,' he adds. 'Let's accommodate people in a way that benefits residents but also gives integrity to the system,' he says. 'That requires very significant political will, to wean the Government off its reliance on emergency accommodation.' Mike Allen, director of advocacy with homeless charity Focus Ireland, says this same reliance on private contractors to secure homeless housing has become a policy of 'repeated short-termism'. Constantly operating in crisis mode, without a long-term strategy, leaves the State in a 'weak bargaining position' where local authorities are 'almost begging private providers to find accommodation', says Allen. 'In some way, homeless people become implicated in this waste of public money,' he adds. Like Henderson, he says his criticisms are not directed at providers such as McEnaney but lie with government for creating a system almost entirely reliant on the private sector. Successive government housing policies have created a situation where many refugees with permission to live and work in the State are unable to find a place to live and must turn to local authorities for support, says Allen. As a result, some of these could end up in State-provided accommodation 'owned by the same landlord but operated by a different arm of the State'. His comments echo those of Dublin Region Housing Executive director Mary Hayes who told an Oireachtas Committee on housing last month that the homeless system had become the 'institutional discharge from one institution to another'. The main factor driving adult-only homelessness is people leaving direct provision, according to the latest DRHE figures. Andrew Geddes, director of the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute, says some European international protection systems, including the Irish model, have developed a 'permanent temporariness' in their approach to asylum. 'What you're effectively doing is warehousing people in the absence of a longer-term plan,' he says. Susan Fratzke, a senior policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, says an ability by government to 'flex up and flex down' in response to unpredictable changes in migration patterns, driven by war and climate change, is a key element of long-term asylum planning. She argues that while State-owned properties are a key element of a functioning asylum housing system, reliance on private contractors is also important. She says European governments need to plan for fluctuation so when numbers decrease, they can prepare for the next surge. 'This causes political tension because governments don't like to say we're planning for a rise in asylum claims, they prefer to talk about what they're doing to reduce numbers,' she says. 'But they could save money by being more realistic about these numbers. That requires political will.' A Department of Justice spokesman said the Government was working towards 'developing a more stable and sustainable accommodation system in the long term' and was moving away from reliance on the private sector through the purchase of 'more accommodation on State-owned lands'. This includes the recent purchase of Citywest Hotel and campus. The Department of Housing has made a similar commitment for homeless people – a spokesman said efforts are ongoing to reduce reliance on private emergency accommodation and secure supported housing operated by NGOs.
