A man who beat his friend to death with a baseball bat has been sentenced to life in prison.

30-year-old Robert Broughan of St Patrick's Park, Rathangan in County Kildare, was sentenced today for the murder of Roy Hopkins on July 31st, 2020.

The pair had gone fishing together on the Grand Canal when Mr Broughan turned on his friend and killed him.

The court heard that Robert Broughan told detectives in his interviews after he was arrested that there had never been a “cross word” between him and Roy Hopkins, but his sole intention that day was to kill him.

He also said he later texted the victim’s phone after he killed him with a message that read, “How is the head?”

The defendant said if Mr Hopkins had answered him he would have “gone back down and finished him off”.

He made “some disclosure” to his parents about what he had done before his father alerted Kildare Garda Station.

Speaking outside court this afternoon the deceased’s mother, Caitriona Hopkins said, “We are so happy to get justice for Roy today but it won’t bring him back”.

Ms Hopkins also said that her son went out to do what he loved on the evening of July 31st, 2020, “He loved fishing and it’s terrible that he went down fishing that day, a sunny evening, to do the thing that he loved most and a guy who was meant to be his friend battered him to death. You would not do it to a dog”.

She also said she would never forgive Robert Broughan for what he did, “I just want to say I will never, ever, ever forgive Robert Broughan for taking my son’s life”.

The judge said Broughan had shown no sympathy for the Hopkins family or expressed any remorse for this “horrendous tragedy”.

He was sentenced to mandatory life in prison.

Main image: Roy Hopkins' family. Image by: Newstalk.