Two Cork men were yesterday given mandatory life sentences after being found guilty of the murder of a young man who was beaten up in a laneway.
At the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, the jury found the pair guilty of murder after deliberating for nearly four hours. Paul Sheehan (21), The Glen, Cork, and Ross Stapleton (21), also of The Glen, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Christian Scully (28), of Togher, Cork, on October 17th, 2002.
Mr Scully was on a life-support machine after being set upon by the two men at Sober Lane in the city centre early on January 28th. He suffered a cardiac arrest nine months later, and died on October 17th, 2002.
Mr Scully's family sobbed as the guilty verdict was returned.
Stapleton and Sheehan held their hands to their heads as their sentence was read out. Neither had any family in court.
During the nine-day trial, the jury heard the statements that the two accused gave gardaí.
Sheehan said in his statements that "I went over and helped Ross; I got him [Mr Scully] on the ground and started kicking him. I tripped him onto the ground by putting my leg in behind his leg. I started kicking him in the head. I was kicking him as hard as I could and stamping on his head."
When Stapleton gave evidence he denied that he ever said he kicked Mr Scully in the head.
Stapleton told gardaí that he didn't remember an argument taking place. "I'm not sure if I started the argument or my friend did. I didn't know him [Mr Scully]. I never met him before.
"We just beat him to death. We just kept beating him. We used our fists and legs. We just kept hitting him and beating him, hitting and beating him and standing on him."
The court heard Stapleton told gardaí that Mr Scully "put up resistance for 10 minutes. He was a strong bloke".
Addressing the jury, Ms Mary Ellen Ring, prosecuting, said there had been "criticism of the deceased" in this case, and requested Mr Justice Butler to let Mrs Marie Scully "give some background on her son".
Mrs Scully told the jury that she has five children. "I have two boys and three girls. I will always have two boys. Christian is in heaven, and heaven, as my little grandson says, is in America."
She said Christian had been living at home. "People thought he was crazy - he used to say 'if I don't come home at night all I just have to ring and tell my parents'."
Mrs Scully said her second eldest son had been working as a salesman, and then he went to work doing store work.
"He had applied to do commerce after his Leaving Cert, but wanted to take a break before he went to college. Ten years later he was still taking a break from study," she said, to which his family laughed fondly in court.
"Christian was an avid soccer fan. He loved Spurs, Celtic and Cork City. I think he was probably watching Cork City the day he was attacked."
Ms Ring asked Mrs Scully how much she missed her son. "I don't have the words to describe how much he is missed. They [referring to Stapleton and Sheehan] took a lot of pleasure away from us. Christian had lots of friends - he was generous to a fault."
Mrs Scully said she had beautiful memories of her son. But the saddest part of all was that the last people to touch him, to speak to him, were not the people he would ever associate with in any way."
Addressing Mrs Scully, her husband, Martin, and their entire family who were present in court for the nine days, Mr Justice Bulter said he wished to express his "appreciation to you and your family for the composure you showed. It was a particularly upsetting trial." He refused application for appeal.