A 28-year-old man has been jailed for 11 years for the manslaughter of a former chef at a homeless encampment in Cork city more than two years ago.
Timmy Hourihane, a 53-year-old father-of-one, was fatally injured when he was attacked near his tent on Mardyke Walk in October 2019 and died a short time later in hospital.
A jury of seven women and five men unanimously found James Brady, of Shannon Lawn, Mayfield in Cork, guilty of Mr Hourihane's manslaughter after a four-week murder trial.
The trial heard how he had "stamped" on Mr Hourihane's head and body during a sustained attack.
Post-mortem examination results found that Mr Hourihane had suffered a collapsed lung and severe facial and head trauma as a result and died shortly afterwards in hospital.
At Brady's sentencing hearing today, Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy described the unprovoked attack which killed Mr Hourihane as "brutal and savage and fuelled by alcohol and drugs".
Noting that several passers-by tried to assist the badly beaten man as he lay on the ground, the judge said it was "probably scant comfort to the family that Mr Hourihane was not totally abandoned in the hour of his death".
Ms Justice Murphy also said that the fact that Brady was "still denying the core evidence of the case, that he repeatedly kicked the prone body" of his victim, meant that she was not persuaded to apply a discount to the headline term of 13 years for manslaughter.
She said Brady's claim that his involvement was limited to punching Mr Hourihane in the face had been contradicted by three witnesses at the trial.
But she noted, she said, that the defendant - who has previous convictions for theft and public order offences - was now "an enhanced prisoner" and suspended the final two years of the 13-year term to encourage further rehabilitation.
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Originally from the Sheep's Head Peninsula in west Cork, Mr Hourihane had once worked for the Hilton group in the UK before falling on hard times and ending up homeless in Cork city.
Last month, his only child, Elliot, told the Central Criminal Court in his victim impact statement that he will be forever "haunted by the horror" of his father's killing.
In his statement, read out in court by prosecution counsel Siobhan Lankford SC, Elliot, who is in his 20s, also said his feelings about his father altered between "heartbreak and rage".
He said he had been hoping he could in some way help his father turn his life around and move him out of homelessness - but that chance had now been taken from him.
He said there were "no winners, only losers", after Brady was found guilty of killing his father, adding his only hope now was that the family could get justice for him.
Mr Hourihane's brother Denis, in his victim impact statement which was also read into the court record by Ms Lankford, told how his "life sentence" began the moment he was asked to identify his brother.
He said the sight of his brother's battered and bruised body inside the morgue will "live with him forever" and that he "cannot imagine" how much he must have suffered on the night he was killed "in the most brutal way".
Vincent Heneghan SC told the court that the defendant had known the deceased for nine years and had expressed remorse for his actions.
Mr Heneghan said his client had been living "a chaotic lifestyle" at the time of the offence and that he now "prays everyday" for his victim.
A second man has been charged in connection with the attack and will go on trial later this year.
