A 35-year-old Dublin man has been given a suspended sentence for the manslaughter of a former All-Ireland boxing champion turned drug dealer and addict.
Anthony Burke from Clancarty Road, Donnycarney, was convicted by a jury last month at the Central Criminal Court of the unlawful killing of Joseph Sutcliffe, aged 32, from Fatima Mansions in Rialto.
35-year-old Burke had been charged with murder but was convicted of manslaughter. His co-accused Ellen Cahill, who admitted both giving Burke the knife used to stab Mr Sutcliffe and disposing of it, received the Probation Act. Cahill is a mother of five children, aged from six to 15, and has no previous convictions. She wept as her lawyer expressed her remorse to the Sutcliffe family.
Mr Sutcliffe died when a single stab wound to the abdomen cut an artery in October 2002.
During sentencing Mr Justice Paul Carney said the descriptions of life in the Fatima Mansions flat complex in Rialto in south Dublin given during the trial last month continue to haunt him.
The trial heard accounts of life in the complex as a place that comes to life at night with hundreds of people buying drugs. A number of witnesses expected to give evidence at Burke's trial had died from the effects of drugs by the time the case came before a jury this year.
Joseph Sutcliffe had been a talented young boxer with All-Ireland titles but his life had gone down hill with drugs. He was a dealer and addict but had not gained financially from his lifestyle.
Burke, who is the registered carer for his father at the family home, had never been to Fatima Mansions before that night. He got involved in a brawl and believed he had only nicked Mr Sutcliffe.
In handing down the suspended sentence, Mr Justice Carney said he did not feel any purpose would be served by jailing Burke.
