A 35-year-old Dublin-born father of three was cleared by a jury yesterday of all charges relating to the killing of his only surviving brother.
Frank McDonnell buried his head in his hands and sobbed with relief after a 12 person jury, sitting at the Circuit Criminal Court in Castlebar, Co Mayo, unanimously returned a verdict of not guilty to manslaughter and also cleared him of causing serious bodily harm to his brother, Liam, in the early hours of March 28th, 2004.
Members of the McDonnell family, including his mother, Marie, and father, Bill, hugged one another in the public gallery after the verdicts were announced following jury deliberations lasting more than six hours.
Marie McDonnell, who told the trial last week that the death of Liam (35) had devastated her family and nearly killed her, was the first to embrace the accused following the verdicts. Frank McDonnell, an employee of McHale Engineering, Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, was cleared of the charge of causing serious bodily harm by a 10-2 majority verdict.
During the course of the eight day trial, which heard from 50 witnesses, evidence was given that the deceased, Liam McDonnell, and his brother, Frank, had been "best friends, brothers and workmates".
Liam had come from Dublin to work in the security industry in Mayo. He was followed by Frank. Liam was head doorman at Cox's restaurant and late night bar in Castlebar at the time of his death.
On the day before the tragic incident, a Saturday, the brothers wore Ireland jerseys as they watched the Ireland/Scotland rugby game together on television in a number of pubs in Castlebar.
But early the following morning, the pair began to argue in Cox's and Frank pushed or pulled Liam, a burly man of six foot four inches, to the ground.
Evidence was given to the trial that Liam felt humiliated by what had happened. He angrily told his brother he had "made a show of him in his own pub". Other doormen in Cox's broke up the fracas but the row continued outside and there was wrestling which ended when gardaí arrived.
Evidence was given that Frank then walked to his home at Rossmor Estate, less than two kilometres from Cox's, where he lived with his wife, Fiona, and three children, but was followed by Liam who was still "seething" over what happened.
Fiona McDonnell said Liam was aggressive when he called to the door of her home at 2.45am on March 28th. She told the court that Liam had told her: "I am going to f . . . ing kill him," meaning her husband.
The brothers met on Rossmor Estate as Frank returned home. The accused gave evidence he was so afraid of Liam that he dialled 999 on his mobile phone and told gardaí that his brother was trying to kill him.
In statements to gardaí following the tragedy, the accused maintained he had pleaded with his brother to leave him alone. He said his brother was getting up and was on one knee when he kicked him.
"I know I punched him and he went down on one knee," Frank said. "I kicked him. I thought if he got up he would kill me." The accused suffered a broken leg in the incident.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Declan Gilsenan, who carried out a postmortem on the deceased, gave evidence of a number of head injuries and said he formed the opinion that death was due to aspiration of blood due to trauma of the face and to alcohol intoxication. Dr Gilsenan said the deceased's alcohol blood limit was three times the legal driving limit which would equate to ten pints or possibly more.
During cross-examination by Patrick McCarthy SC, defending, Dr Gilsenan said alcohol and the fact that the deceased had a cleft palate were also contributory factors to his death.
Dr Gilsenan said he saw evidence of two kicks, which were not glancing blows, to the head.
Marie McDonnell, mother of Frank and Liam, told a harrowing story of family tragedy when she gave evidence. She said another son, Eoin, got cancer at 16 and died aged 22. He had got married four hours before he died.
His wife committed suicide after his death because she had a broken heart.
She said the three brothers were known as the "Three Musketeers" and always got on well together.