A Dublin teenager who shot and killed a 50-year-old man during a row over an egg throwing incident at his East Wall home has been sentenced to seven years detention.
Conor Duffy of St Mary's Road, East Wall, was last month acquitted of murder but found guilty of the manslaughter of Aidan O'Kane at Shelmalier Road in December 2008.
Mr Justice Garret Sheehan said the killing happened in the context of a wider campaign of harassment of the victim.
He agreed with the DPP that the killing was at the upper end of the scale but in mitigation he took into account that Duffy had offered an early plea to manslaughter, which had not been accepted by the State.
The judge also took into account the fact that he was 16 at the time, his remorse and learning difficulties he had from an early age.
However, he noted that Duffy had left the scene after the killing and disposed of the weapon and his clothes.
The judge said he noted the recent report of the inspector of prisons, which said some prisons were not fit for purpose.
He said the punitive element of the sentence was the deprivation of liberty and he had to assume that it would not involve the removal of his dignity or any other rights.
Earlier this week, the Central Criminal Court heard that what started as a public nuisance incident quickly escalated into the death of a man.
Lawyers for Duffy said he was 16 at the time of the offence and was now a young man who had killed another man - a stain he would never be able to wash away.
A victim impact statement was read to the court by gardaí.
In it, the victim's brother Barry O'Kane, said Aidan's death had had a profound impact on his family and many friends who miss him dearly.
He described how his brother had befriended local youths and was always willing to share his knowledge and love of mechanics, electronics and computers.
Before he died he had been approached by community workers to consider taking part in a scheme to teach local youths about motorbike mechanics and he was excited about the prospect.
Mr O'Kane said his brother had great patience and ‘you would have to work hard to cause him to lose it’.
He said he never had a bad word to say about anyone and as the eldest in the family had kept them all in contact after the death of their parents.
The trial heard that Duffy was among a number of youths in the area when Mr O'Kane's house was attacked with eggs.
Mr O'Kane had later emerged from his house wearing a balaclava and some youths wrongly believed a baton he was carrying was a gun.
Duffy said he had previously been threatened by Mr O'Kane who believed had stolen his bike.
On the night he said he believed Mr O'Kane had a gun and was going to shoot him.
He said wanted to frighten Mr O Kane and got a gun himself but he claimed he never meant to kill him and was aiming for his leg when he fired the gun.
Mr O'Kane died from a single gun shot wound to the chest.
Defence barristers told the court that Duffy had offered to plead guilty to manslaughter, which was what the jury eventually convicted him of.
If that plea had been accepted he would have been 17 at the time of sentence and could have benefitted from the provisions of the Children's Act.
However, because the plea was not accepted by the State he went to trial at the age of 18 and was now being sentenced as an adult.
Senior Counsel Sean Gillane said he had taken responsibility from an early stage having been encouraged by his family.
He said Duffy had been diagnosed with ADHD at a young age and had left school early.
Despite coming from a stable and respectable family his difficulties continued into his teens.
He had 11 previous convictions for road traffic and other non-violent offences.
Mr Gillane said even with this as a background, no one could have predicted he would be before a court charged with such a serious crime.
