A TIPPERARY man has been jailed for 18 months for killing his father with a spade in a beating he said was “a long time coming” and that he described as “pay-back time”.
James McInerney (23) of Lacey Avenue, Templemore, was found not guilty of murdering his father but guilty of manslaughter following an eight-day trial at the Central Criminal Court.
The defendant had described 56-year-old James McInerney as “the most evil man you could have met”, a man who had spent 25 years beating his wife and family.
The dead man’s widow described her husband as a “bad man” and told the court she probably would not be alive were it not for her son’s protection.
The defendant had pleaded not guilty to murdering his father at the family home on June 17th, 2009. He argued that the beating was reasonable self-defence as his father was about to beat him with the spade before he took it from him.
He told gardaí that his drunken father was shouting abuse at his family from the back yard that evening. He was banging the door of the house with a shovel, calling the defendant outside. This story was backed up by neighbours.
The accused said he ignored his father for a while and had earlier walked away from him when he called him handicapped and yellow. However, he went outside when he heard glass break in the yard.
“I flipped out in a rage. I was sick of it. I wasn’t able for anymore,” he said. “I saw my father with the spade in his hand after breaking the window in my van.”
McInerney said he grabbed the spade out of his father’s hand as he swung it at him. He said he hit him on the head with it and the older man fell to his knees. He hit him another couple of times in his head and gut, he said.
The accused said he threw the spade away after beating his father. “I knew I’d gone too far. It was too late,” he said.
“If I didn’t put daddy down, he’d have put me down,” he said. “I also wanted to protect my family.” The defendant told gardaí that although he hated his father, he had not wanted to kill him because he did not want to go to prison.
“It’s a relief to me, even if I am going to jail, knowing that my mother will have peace,” he said.
The primary defence case was that there was no unlawful killing, one of the elements of murder, because the killing was committed in reasonable self-defence. However, the seven men and five women of the jury did not accept this.
The defence’s secondary position was that he was guilty of only manslaughter on one of three grounds: a lack of intent, self-defence with unreasonable force or provocation.
The jury was not asked on which of these the verdict of manslaughter was decided.
The jury reached its unanimous decision after deliberating for 6½ hours.
Brendan Grehan, defending, asked for sentencing to proceed straight away.
More than a dozen gardaí were in court for the sentencing, with the defendant’s mother and siblings on one side of the room and the deceased’s siblings and extended family on the other.