A MAN who killed his friend with a single stab wound has had his jail sentence reduced from eight to six years by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
The three judge appeal court yesterday ruled Mark Green was entitled to a small discount on the sentence imposed at the Central Criminal Court in June last year.
It found the trial judge – Mr Justice Paul Carney – had erred in placing his offence at the top end of the scale of knife crimes.
Green (21), Tritonville Road, Sandymount, was convicted of the manslaughter of Alan Young (19), near Bremen Road, Irishtown, on March 11th, 2007.
Yesterday, Brendan Grehan SC, for Green, argued the eight-year sentence imposed on his client was excessive and Mr Justice Carney had not taken into consideration the manslaughter was involuntary.
Counsel also argued the trial judge erred by placing the offence at the top end of the scale when, he said, Green had not carried a knife with an intention to cause serious harm. There was no basis for finding this offence at the top end of the knife killing scale, he said.
The trial judge also failed to fully take into account Green was prone to being bullied in prison and that jail would be harsher for him than for others. Green has ADHD, counsel said.
Opposing the appeal, Patrick Gageby SC, for the DPP, said the sentence should not be disturbed and all relevant factors had been taken into account by the trial judge.
The appeal court with Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Declan Budd, and Mr Justice Michael Hanna, said it accepted, where there was a verdict of involuntary manslaughter, the killing was not at the top end of the scale.
The “hard fact” was that Green was the person who had got the knife in this case and he would have to serve a custodial sentence, the court said.
Mr Justice Hardiman said, in those circumstances, the sentence could only “be altered to a limited degree”. The appeal court directed the eight-year term would remain in place but with the final two years suspended.
Mr Justice Hardiman noted the trial heard Mr Young died of a single-stab wound during the row with Green. They had been friends before the fatal incident but, on the weekend in question, tensions had arisen between them.
In a pub in Irishtown, Mr Young had slapped Green in the face because he believed Green had spread rumours about him.
The trial was told Green went to a friend’s house and picked up a kitchen knife for protection and returned. He said he extended his arm as Mr Young came towards him but did not mean to stab him. Immediately, after the stabbing he admitted his involvement to gardaí.
As with so many knife crimes, this was “a very tragic case” where a person, who ironically had been wronged in the first place, “felt the necessity to get a knife in the course of a dispute”, Mr Justice Hardiman said. The end result was that one young man was dead while another would have to spend a period of time in prison.