The Dublin man who was found guilty last week of the murder of Chinese student Zhi Song, has been given a mandatory life sentence by Mr Justice Barry White.
The Central Criminal Court had heard that Derek Wade had previously served five years in jail for manslaughter.
Wade (27), of Church Avenue, Rialto, has 25 previous convictions including a seven-year sentence for manslaughter in 1999 when he was aged 17.
The majority of his convictions were for road-traffic offences.
He was found guilty by a jury last week of stabbing Mr Song (23) with a chef's carving knife after breaking into the house where Mr Song was living on Reuben Avenue, South Circular Road, on June 29th, 2005.
Wade also received a five-year sentence for attempting to rob Mr Song's girlfriend, Xiau Wen Zhou, on the same occasion.
Outside court, Mr Song's parents spoke through an interpreter of their grief at losing their only son. They said the law in Ireland was different. In China, Wade would have received the death sentence for his crime.
"I think he was punished by the law but we can never have our son back again."
Ji Bong Song, the dead man's father, said they heard he had killed before "but he was set free from prison so our son was killed by him. So we hope he will be kept in prison for life never to hurt other innocent people."