A MAN who told gardaí he stabbed another man after discovering the victim in bed with his former girlfriend and child has been found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
John Flaherty (25), Ard Daire, Ferrybank, Waterford, denied the murder of Patrick Murphy (27) early on Sunday, June 20th, 2006.
Following a five-day trial at the Central Criminal Court, sitting in Waterford, a jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter after deliberating for two hours and 51 minutes.
There were emotional scenes in the courthouse as the verdict was delivered.
Flaherty will be sentenced for manslaughter on November 25th following the preparation of victim impact reports. He will be remanded in custody until then.
The trial heard that Flaherty arrived at the home of his “on-off girlfriend” and mother of his three children, Amy Quigley, at about 5am.
On entering her bedroom, he found Ms Quigley asleep in bed with one of their children – aged two at the time – and Mr Murphy. Flaherty told gardaí that both Ms Quigley and Mr Murphy were naked.
He punched Mr Murphy and then went downstairs. He intended to leave the house but instead took two knives from a cutlery box and went back to the bedroom and initially stabbed Mr Murphy, inflicting a 22cm wound to his abdomen.
This was the fatal wound, State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy told the trial on Wednesday, but Mr Murphy also suffered multiple superficial wounds to his head, back, legs and arms.
Flaherty told gardaí after he was arrested later that day that he “snapped” when he saw the three asleep in bed.
Closing the case yesterday, Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, defending, argued that there was provocation involved, his client lost self-control and so should be acquitted of the murder charge. There was evidence during the case of Mr Murphy being a heroin user and stashing heroin in Ms Quigley’s house, Mr Ó Lideadha said.
“You put yourselves in the shoes of Mr Flaherty,” he told the jury. “You try to get inside his mind and you try to understand the million and one thoughts that were going through his head when he walks into his on-off girlfriend and the mother of his three children’s bed and sees a heroin addict lying naked in the bed next to his on-off girlfriend, with his child in the bed.” All the evidence “points clearly towards total loss of self-control”, he added.
Patrick McCarthy SC, prosecuting, said Mr Murphy was “not a threat to anyone” when he was in bed. “To actually go towards the door, stop, turn and go towards the knives is an operating mind.
“If he just comes out and hits Mr Murphy, that would be it, end of story, we wouldn’t be here.”