A young Cavan man has been jailed for life for murdering his father at their home two years ago.
A jury at the Central Criminal Court unanimously found Seamus Fitzgerald (21) guilty of murdering his father James Fitzgerald (56) in Lisgar, Baileborough, Co Cavan, on January 8th, 2006.
The court had hear Fitzgerald had wanted to buy a car and had been looking for money from his sister. When she told him that she didn’t have that kind of money, he told her he might ask his father for it.
He later told gardaí that it was while he was watching the film Goodfellashe got it into his head to kill his father.
He strangled his father with using a telephone flex and his hands and afterwards stabbed his father’s body four times with a kitchen knife.
Fitzgerald’s mother wrote to Minister of Health Mary Harney asking for help two years before her husband was killed, the court heard during the trial. She was sent back a reply telling her to go to the health board.
Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins jailed Fitzgerald for life and said he would “recommend wholeheartedly that any appropriate treatment would be made available”.