Two men have been jailed for life after they were found guilty of the murder of a father-of-two who died after he was stabbed more than a dozen times.
Patrick Desmond (29), St Mary's Park, Limerick, and his nephew, Stuart Moloney (18), Castlepark, Moyross, had denied murdering Patrick Crawford (41) at Ballygrennan Close, Moyross, on June 2nd, 2002.
They had also denied assaulting him causing serious harm on the same date.
After five hours, a jury at the Central Criminal Court yesterday returned a unanimous guilty verdict on both counts. The trial had lasted eight days.
On Tuesday, Mr Justice White had sent the jury of 11 men and one woman to a hotel overnight.
This is the third time a Limerick jury has recorded a unanimous guilty verdict in a murder trial since the Central Criminal Court began sitting in the city last July.
During the trial, several of the prosecution witnesses were declared hostile after they failed - in court - to place the accused men at the scene, despite having signed statements to that effect earlier .
Following the failure of one witness to give evidence, Mr Justice White said: "I am satisfied that you are committing blatant perjury in this case, and, at the end of the trial, I will be referring papers in relation to your evidence to the Director of Public Prosecutions."
Following the failure of another witness to place the two accused men at the scene of Mr Crawford's murder, Mr Justice White said: "I strongly suggest there has been an orchestrated campaign to ensure the truth does not come out in this case."
The court heard that Mr Crawford suffered more than 40 injuries and was stabbed 13 times in a frenzied attack with a number of different items including a hedge trimmer.
Other weapons used in the vicious assault included a stick and a knife.
On the night he was killed, Mr Crawford had been in a pub, watching Ireland's World Cup soccer match against Cameroon, with his wife Janet and son Ger, the court heard.
After returning home in a taxi in the early hours, Mr Crawford's son was involved in a row in Castlepark, where Moloney lived.
Mr Crawford successfully restrained his son from further confrontation and ordered him to go inside the house.
Shortly after this, both accused men came up the road carrying weapons and Mr Crawford was viciously attacked. Chilling video evidence of the fatal assault outside Mr Crawford's home was shown to the jury.
The footage had been obtained from CCTV cameras operated from the Moyross Community Enterprise Centre. This marked the second time CCTV footage from the same Moyross community centre had been shown to a jury in a Limerick murder trial.
Further evidence was given during the trial by a teenage girl, via video-link from the judge's chambers.
Ahead of sentencing yesterday, Insp John Scanlon of Henry Street Garda station gave evidence of previous convictions.
The court heard that Desmond had 16 previous convictions - the first of which was at the age of 12 - for offences including possession of a sawn-off shotgun, public order and misuse of drugs.
Moloney had 14 previous convictions for offences including larceny and assault. His mother had left home when he was aged 15.
Moloney had made "substantial admissions" in the Garda investigation, while Desmond had denied any involvement, the court heard. Stuart was considerably younger than his uncle and was probably under the influence of the older man at the time of the fatal assault.
Mr Justice White imposed mandatory life sentences on the murder charge.
He jailed Desmond for five years and Moloney for three years in relation to the assault charge, with both sentences to run concurrently.
"I am firmly of the view that a message must go out that there must be a halt to crimes of serious assault and I am a firm believer in imposing deterrent sentences," said the judge.
He thanked the jury for its "service and attention" during the trial and he exempted the jurors from jury service for life. "It seems to me that sufficient regard is not paid to the difficulties of jury service and the inconvenience to members' families," Mr Justice White said.
A relative of one of the accused men had to be restrained by gardaí from attacking the murder victim's widow, Ms Crawford, in the public gallery.