A Co Mayo farmer who was found guilty of the manslaughter of a Traveller he shot dead on his property was sentenced to six years in jail at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin today.
Padraig Nally (61) had denied the murder of father-of-11 John Ward (42) at his 65-acre farm in Cross, Co Mayo, last year.
Nally's legal team have until December 5th to prepare submissions for grounds for appeal based on the direction Justice Paul Carney gave to the jury in the murder trial held in Castlebar last July. At that time Justice Carney removed the option of acquittal from the jury, ruling that "the amount of force (used to kill John Ward) cannot be objectively justified".
The defence team believe this direction to the jury exceeded the judge's powers and as it removed from the jury the option of considering that Nally had acted in self-defence.
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| Patrick Nally arriving at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin today. Niall Carson/PA |
The five-day trial had heard evidence that Mr Nally was a kind and honest man who was always willing to help neighbours with farming chores.
But he lived alone after the death of his parents, had no phone in his house and had been in a state of fear after his new chainsaw was stolen in February last year.
He became obsessed with cars which called at his house, taking down their numbers, and he spent hours in his shed every day with his shotgun.
When he found Mr Ward coming out of the back door of his house, he shot him in the hip from a distance of about four to five yards and then became involved in a struggle with him.
Mr Nally grabbed the wounded man by the neck and shoved him up against the side of his house, describing it later to police as "a real movie-type effort".
He then beat Mr Ward about 20 times with a two-foot ash stick. When Mr Ward ran out of his yard and down the road, he went to his shed, reloaded his single barrel shotgun and shot him for a second time, wounding him fatally.
He threw his body over a wall and drove to a neighbour's house to alert gardaí. Mr Nally later told gardaí he had been out of his mind with fear and that he felt suicidal after the shooting.
But he also said he had decided to shoot Mr Ward because he could not live any longer with the constant visits to his house by Travellers.
Mr Ward had 12 previous convictions for burglary, possession of stolen goods and other offences, and he had been facing charges of attacking Garda officers with a slash hook at the time of his death.
But Mr Ward's 18-year old son, Tom, told the court he had driven his father to the house to look for second-hand cars and not to carry out a burglary.