A Tallaght man has been found guilty by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury of the manslaughter of another man he punched at a city centre bus stop.Ian Stanbridge (24) from Bawnlee Drive, was remanded in custody for sentence on March 18th.
Stanbridge had denied killing Mr James Kavanagh (36), who died in hospital following the assault on Eden Quay on May 27th, 2003.
Judge Yvonne Murphy extended her deepest sympathies to the Kavanagh family. It was the third day of the trial.
Following four hours of deliberations, the jury also returned two further unanimous verdicts, convicting the father-of-two of assaulting Mr Kavanagh causing him serious harm and of assaulting him causing him harm.
Ms Una Ní Raifeartaigh BL, prosecuting, told the jury earlier that post-mortem results prepared by the Chief State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, showed the victim died as a result of head trauma consistent with the head moving backwards and being damaged as a result of a fall.
Dr Cassidy also reported that there was a second site of impact which could have been caused by a blow to the face. She said this would have been of sufficient force to propel the victim to the ground even if he was not intoxicated. Following his arrest on June 7th, 2003, Stanbridge made a statement to gardaí in which he admitted swinging a punch at the deceased but claimed that he had done this in self-defence after Mr Kavanagh tried to push him into the Liffey.
He said: "I never meant for the man to die. I am sorry for him and sorry for his family." Mr Michael Clavin, a witness to the attack, said he had met Mr Kavanagh for a few pints after work at the Parnell Mooney pub in Dublin city centre on Tuesday, May 27th, 2003.
He and Mr Kavanagh left the pub at around 8 p.m. and walked down O'Connell Street and on to Eden Quay. As they passed some telephone kiosks, he saw Mr Stanbridge standing against the wall and words were exchanged between him and the deceased. He told the jury: "It was just basically a lot of talk. They could have been slagging each other off but I'm not sure." Mr Clavin said that a couple of minutes later he was standing at a bus stop with Mr Kavanagh when he saw Mr Stanbridge "trotting" down towards them with two other men.
The accused said to Mr Kavanagh "You called me a w*****" to which the deceased replied "You don't really want to go there". Stanbridge then struck him causing him to fall to the ground, and got on a bus.
An ambulance was called and Mr Kavanagh was taken to the Mater Hospital where he died three days later.