A Belfast man who was jailed for life in July for murder was yesterday given further three-year sentences for assaulting two other men during the same incident.
Ms Justice McGuinness imposed concurrent three-year terms on Stephen Boyle (29), backdated to the incident on August 3rd, 1996. She said the assaults had been serious but Boyle had not tried to deny or minimise their seriousness during his murder trial in the Central Criminal Court.
Last July a jury found Boyle guilty of murdering Mr Gerard Hagan (32), of Norfolk Road, Belfast, at Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin, on August 3rd, 1996.
Boyle, of Cook Court, Ormeau Road, was also convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Mark Brown and Mr Douglas McManus with intent to maim, disfigure or disable them on the same date.
Ms Justice McGuinness had jailed Boyle for life for the murder and adjourned sentence on the other charges pending probation reports.
Yesterday defence counsel, Mr Brendan Grogan SC, said the report showed Boyle was attending anger counselling in prison. He had found his anger difficult to deal with because he often felt people were talking about him behind his back. In this case, it had resulted in the two men being injured and Mr Hagan's death.
The four-day murder trial in July heard that Boyle shared a flat with Mr Brown and Mr McManus in Rathmines, where Mr Hagan had also stayed for about a month. Mr Brown and Mr McManus had said they had been battered with a hurley by Boyle early on August 3rd, 1996, as they attempted to sleep in the flat.
They said Boyle was drunk and in a bad mood and had complained that they were talking about him behind his back. The jury also heard that Boyle had stabbed Mr Hagan 11 times during the row. Boyle had later walked to a Garda station and said he had killed a man in "self-defence".