A 32-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for the double murder of a father and his son at their home in Co Kerry three years ago.
Thomas Barrett from Causeway in north Kerry pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court today to the murders of 60-year-old Michael Hanrahan and his 27-year-old son Denis in March 2008.
Barrett expressed his regret through his Counsel in court for what he had done but gave no reason for the double murder.
On the night of 26 March, 2008, he dressed in dark clothes and a camouflage jacket, armed himself with a pump-action shot gun and carried extra cartridges on him.
He wore a balaclava rolled up and there were 50 more cartridges, a hunting knife and a cross-bow in the boot of his car as he drove the 20 miles from his home in Causeway to the Hanrahan's home just outside the village of Moyvane.
The key was in the door as was tradition and Thomas Barrett walked in and shot Denis in the leg as he slept.
His father Michael was awoken by the noise and came into his son's bedroom.
Thomas Barrett went into the living room, reloaded and went back into the bedroom where he shot and killed both men.
He fired eight shots in all, reloading three times. He then left and drove back home.
In his car outside his house, he injected himself with a drug used to treat anxiety in pigs.
He then went into his house but his family were awoken by the sound of him getting violently ill downstairs.
He was taken to Kerry General Hospital and transferred to a psychiatric ward there where he first confirmed to a clinical psychologist his involvement in the double murder.
He was subsequently arrested and interviewed by the gardaí where he made further admissions.
The trial was adjourned last year pending an examination by the clinical director of the Central Mental Hospital who subsequently found that Thomas Barrett was not insane and was fit to stand trial.
Dr Harry Kennedy concluded that there were traces of resentment and sensitivity to slights.
Thomas Barrett, the court heard today, had been a friend of Denis Hanrahan and had been a fellow student of his in Pallasgreen Agricultural College.
He also had been a frequent visitor to the Hanrahan home and had eaten and slept there but stopped visiting 13 months before the murders.
In a victim impact statement read to the Central Criminal Court today, Denis Hanrahan's twin brother, Shane, said the loss of his father and brother was unimaginable.
He said their mother died 12 years ago and their father had brought up the five children on his own.
He said the damage to the family was incalculable and the pain was excruciating.
He said there was no justification in the world for what he had done and the family will never get closure.
