The wife of a man who was killed by his friend in a row over a pint in Cork has told the Central Criminal Court his death has devastated their family.
Michael Dineen from Ard Mhuileann, Ballinwillin, Mitchelstown was cleared of murdering Patrick O'Donnell, but will soon be sentenced for his manslaughter.
Dineen admitted beating his friend, Paddy ‘Ginty’ O’Donnell, in Willie Andies Pub in Mitchelstown on June 1st, 2018, but claimed he was acting in self-defence.
He told gardaí that Mr O’Donnell hit him twice after accusing him of drinking his pint, and that he hit him once in return, and he went down.
Witnesses described seeing Mr O’Donnell lying on his back on the floor of the pub with Dineen on top of him delivering a flurry of blows with both fists.
Afterwards, he ran around the town shouting that he was ‘the King of Mitchelstown’.
He made the same declaration when he returned to the pub topless some time later.
Dineen, who drank up to 20 pints that day, was acquitted of murder, but found guilty of his friend’s manslaughter.
Mr O’Donnell’s wife Leanne told his sentence hearing today that her heart sank when she got to the pub, because she knew her Ginty was dead.
She told the court that she and their four children are utterly devastated, and life without him is unbearable.
Dineen, who reiterated how sorry he is to the O’Donnells today, will be sentenced later.
Reporting by Frank Greaney
