Man jailed for eight years over body in freezer

A MAN who was sentenced to eight years for beating a Dublin criminal to death and storing his body in a freezer for five years showed "a callous disregard for all human decency", Mr Justice Paul Carney said yesterday.

The judge sentenced Galway man Edward Griffin to eight years in prison for manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court in Cloverhill, west Dublin yesterday.

Griffin (45), of Knocknacarra, Galway had pleaded guilty to the charge of killing 52-year-old Patrick McCormack in June 2002 at a fish shop on Henry Street in Galway.

Griffin had initially been charged with murder, but the DPP accepted his plea of manslaughter on the grounds of self-defence with excessive and unreasonable force used.

The court had heard the defendant was in the drugs business, mainly cannabis, with McCormack.

According to Griffin, the only witness, McCormack went to the fish shop where he worked and the two men argued over money. Griffin said the victim hit him over the back of the head with a wheel brace he had brought with him and both men began to fight. Griffin managed to take McCormack's wheel brace and use it against him.

Mr Justice Carney said yesterday the only witness to the killing of the "unfortunate Mr McCormack" was the accused and accordingly his account was the only one available to the court.

He said there were a number of aggravating issues in the case. Griffin was only entitled to a partial defence of self-defence because of the excessive force he used against McCormack, which included 17 head injuries.

"He showed a callous disregard for all human decency in allowing the body to lie in a freezer for five years while he worked around it," Mr Justice Carney said.

Griffin had also laid a false trail so that people would think McCormack was still alive and he had been cruel to the victim's family by denying them a funeral and closure over a long time, the judge said.

Griffin's background offered little or no mitigation.

"The genesis of this crime is rooted in criminality and drug dealing," Mr Justice Carney said.

"The only matter in his favour was the plea of guilty."

Afterwards, Janine Brogan, one of the victim's two daughters said the family did not think justice had been done.

"We are not very happy because he could be out in five years and my dad is dead. As far as we are concerned it was murder," she said.

Ms Brogan, who was 18 when her father disappeared, said it had been a very difficult time for the family.

They had searched for him for a long time and had tried to contact him through texts on his mobile phone, she said, but they never heard from him.

"It was very tough," she said.

The things that had been said about him in court during the trial were not true, she said.

"He was a lovely father, very generous, gave us everything we wanted . . . it was all lies what was said about him," Ms Brogan said.