TWO BAR staff have been acquitted by direction of the trial judge of the manslaughter of an Englishman to whom they served a pint glass of eight shorts following a night of heavy drinking in a hotel in Co Tipperary.
Bar manager, Gary Wright (34), and barman, Aidan Dalton (28), both with addresses at Kilfithmone, Borrisoleigh, Co Tipperary, had denied unlawfully killing Graham Parish (26) at Hayes Hotel, Liberty Square, Thurles, on July 1st, 2008.
The State alleged that both men were guilty of “gross negligence” in allowing Mr Parish, a father of two from Calder Tce, Lomeshaye village near Nelson in East Lancashire, to be served a pint glass containing eight shorts as he celebrated his 26th birthday.
But yesterday at Nenagh Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Tom Teehan directed the jury of six men and six women to find both men not guilty of Mr Parish’s manslaughter after he adjudicated on applications made earlier by defence lawyers in the absence of the jury.
Judge Teehan explained his direction to the jury to acquit both accused by referring to the application made by defence counsels, Michael Delaney SC and Aidan Doyle SC, that the State had failed to prove they had a case to answer with regard to Mr Parish’s death.
Judge Teehan said there were four ingredients to the charge that had to be met by the State – including that the accused had a duty of care to the deceased, that they had breached that duty of care and that their negligence in that breach amounted to a gross negligence.
He said he was satisfied the State had met the test in these three requirements but there was also the fourth ingredient required of the State, namely that it was the gross negligence of the two accused that led to or was the cause of Mr Parish’s death.
He said that the courts in common law jurisdictions across the world had attached a great importance to the issue of individual responsibility, particularly in relation to consumption of large quantities of alcohol, and he had to consider that when assessing the fourth ingredient.
He noted that Mr Parish had to make a decision even after Mr Wright and Mr Dalton had come to the conclusion to allow him be served the eight-shot glass and that decision was that he was going to consume the eight shots in one go.
“He then took a decision to consume that drink and that was a supervening event which broke the chain of causation (between the accused’s gross negligence and Mr Parish’s death),” said Judge Teehan.
He said the issue of whether or not someone was drunk was not an excuse or a defence in the case of somebody accused of a criminal offence and although Mr Parish was not an accused person, the same principle applied to his situation – drunkenness was not an excuse or defence.
Judge Teehan said because of this issue of individual responsibility in that Mr Parish decided to drink the shots, it would not be right to allow the matter go to the jury as, if they convicted the accused, the conviction could not be regarded as safe and reliable.
He directed the jury to acquit both Mr Wright and Mr Dalton – who were both on legal aid – of the manslaughter charge and said that while certain things had been said about them during the course of the trial, they were both, he believed, “very decent and honourable men”.
He also extended his sympathies to the family of the late Mr Parish and said it was important to remember the case involved a fatality where a young man had died and he hoped that none of Mr Parish’s family had felt that the court was disrespectful to him in the evidence it heard.
“If any disrespect was taken, I am certain I speak for everyone here when I say no disrespect was intended,” said Judge Teehan, noting that Mr Parish was “extremely well liked by his friends and acquaintances” and “deeply treasured by his family”.
Evidence was heard that Mr Parish had begun drinking at about 7pm with some friends and had drunk eight pints by 10pm when he and his friends began “to race their pints”. When he went to the toilet, his friends twice ordered vodkas to put in his pint.
Mr Parish drank both pints unaware they contained shots and about 10.30pm, some of his friends ordered 10 shots in a pint glass and Mr Dalton asked Mr Wright was it okay to put so much spirits in one glass and eight shots were put into a pint glass which Mr Parish drank.
He later fell off his stool and was left in an upstairs function room by his friends where he was checked on at about midnight and found to be snoring. But he was later discovered unconscious by a night porter at about 6am and pronounced dead at 7.15am.
A postmortem revealed he had blood alcohol level of 375mgs per 100mls and found that he died as a result of acute alcohol intoxication. Both accused said they would not have served him the eight-shot drink if they thought he was going to drink it all himself in one go.