A 23-year-old man, who beat his father to death with a shovel last year at their home in Templemore, Co Tipperary, has been jailed for 18 months.
James McInerney Jnr, who this morning was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court, apologised for killing his father James (Jimmy) last June.
James McInerney Snr’s wife, Eileen, said her husband was a bad man who had beaten her and their 12 children. But the victim's brother and sister said after the sentencing that Mr McInerney was not a violent man and they were unhappy with the sentence.
56-year-old Jimmy McInerney was a settled traveller who lived at Lacey Avenue in Templemore.
The court heard that the father of 12 children drank and when he did he became violent.
The family had a caravan behind their house where Mr McInerney Snr slept when he drank too much.
The jury heard that on the night of 17 June, Mrs McInerney would not let her husband into the house, so he broke a bottle and banged the door twice with a spade.
He also broke two windows in his son James’ van and when his son went to talk to him, he called him a ‘Nancy Boy’ and a ‘Queer’.
James McInerney Jnr then got a shovel and beat his father to death. Afterwards he was remorseful but said ‘it had been a long time coming’.
Mr Justice John Edwards said he accepted that James McInerney Jnr was genuinely sorry, that patricide carries its own penalty, and that the case was a tragedy for all concerned.
