A 35-year-old man has been jailed for five years for beating a 62-year-old man to death in Dublin more than three years ago.
Gary Walsh with an address at the Watercourse, Orwell Park in Templeogue, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Cathal Sweeney in a flat in Terenure in February 2014.
Mr Sweeney was drinking in a flat in Terenure on 8 February 2014 with Walsh and another man.
All three were alcoholics and had been drinking for some time.
A row broke out after the other man made an allegation of sexual assault against Mr Sweeney.
Walsh punched Mr Sweeney six or seven times in the face and head.
The older man, who was in bad health, died as a result of his injuries.
Walsh pleaded guilty to manslaughter and juries in two murder trials failed to agree on a verdict.
Mr Sweeney's son, David, told the court the family had not been able to put their father to rest for three and half years.
The court was told Walsh had made very serious efforts to turn his life around, and his defence counsel read an apology from him to the Sweeney family.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said Mr Sweeney's family had suffered gravely.
He said the appropriate sentence would be ten years. But he took into account the plea of guilty and Walsh's efforts at rehabilitation.
He said one was on occasion somewhat jaded by assertions that people acknowledged their criminality but this seemed to be a genuine case of remorse.
He imposed an eight-year sentence and suspended the final three years.
