A Dublin man was given an eight-year prison sentence, with the last two suspended, at the Central Criminal Court yesterday for the manslaughter of a father of nine in Tallaght, Co Dublin.
Andrew Wall (22), of St Patrick's, Fortunestown Lane, Jobstown, Tallaght, was convicted by a jury in January of the manslaughter of Mr John McCarthy (35) at a halting site at Fortunestown Lane, off Brookfield Road, on July 15th, 1996.
He had pleaded guilty to having a sawn-off .22 rifle and ammunition in suspicious circumstances on the same date and was jailed for four years, to run concurrently.
The jury heard that Wall believed his brother had been killed in a hit-and-run accident and went to the halting site where he went into a caravan and shot Mr McCarthy twice in front of two of his nieces.
Wall later told gardai he knew that Mr McCarthy had nothing to do with the accident but he wanted to get him to talk about who was involved.
He said he "just wanted to frighten them and get them to tell me the truth on who did it" when he went with the rifle and three men to the halting site minutes after being told "it was them in the field" who had knocked down his brother.
The jury heard that Wall's brother, Martin, had been knocked down and seriously injured by a van. Mr Justice O'Higgins told Wall he had been found guilty of a crime of "the utmost seriousness".
"A totally innocent man minding his own business was gunned down, a decent, responsible person with nine young children for no fault of his own."
He said while Wall had visited tragedy on the McCarthy family, he accepted that tragedy had visited the Wall family. Wall had another brother killed in a previous road accident and had believed his brother, Martin, had been killed in the hit-and-run.
He accepted that Wall had shown genuine remorse and he said there was " a genuine hope of rehabilitation".
Det Insp Martin McLaughlin, Tallaght, said Wall was a member of a settled traveller family and one of 12 children. He had expressed remorse for what he had done and was genuinely upset. He had co-operated fully with the Garda.