A 27-year-old man died after he was kicked in the head on a Dublin quay after he missed the last train home to Limerick, an inquest heard last night.
Thomas Maloney received serious head injuries in a late-night row with two men over queue jumping at a Statoil Service Station on Ushers Quay at around 3am on April 21st, 2002.
His father, Thomas Maloney snr of Cosgrave Park, Moyross, Limerick city, said: "He was just visiting Dublin for the day when he missed his train down from Dublin."
Two Dublin men were charged and sentenced in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for the manslaughter of Mr Maloney - William McDonnell of Mary Aikenhead House, James's Street, and Francis Kenny of Basin Street Flats - last June.
The Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial heard that McDonnell had 29 previous convictions, including four for violence, from 1974 to 2001.
Det Insp Gabriel O'Gara said: "An altercation took place over queue jumping. It was between the deceased and two others. We don't know what words were exchanged or what caused the events to follow on."
He added: "The deceased was assaulted and kicked again on the ground."
Mr Maloney, who was a butcher in Limerick, was rushed to St James's Hospital in Dublin after the incident, where his condition rapidly deteriorated.
He was transferred to the neurological unit in Beaumont Hospital, where he underwent an operation. However, the inquest heard that Mr Maloney was deeply unconscious and went on to develop pneumonia before he got septicaemia and died 12 days later on May 3rd, 2002.
Mr Maloney said: "They told us that Thomas was doing well but he was dying. I was very optimistic about Thomas's condition. The lack of information regarding Beaumont Hospital was appalling."
Prof Christopher Pidgeon, a consultant neurosurgeon at Beaumont Hospital, said: "I really don't accept it, he got excellent treatment."
The consultant said Mr Maloney's case was always serious from the start and with a major subdural haematoma, which places pressure on the brain, the chances of survival were poor.
He told the inquest he believed Mr Maloney snr was familiar with head injuries and their outcome, as he had also lost another family member to one. Another of Mr Maloney's sons, Alan, died after he was hit by a car some years earlier in the 1990s.
Prof Marie Cassidy, the State Pathologist, said Mr Maloney's serious head injuries could have been produced by kicks to the head while the victim was lying on the ground.
She said there was "blunt force trauma" and revealed that 23 marks were found on the body, some of which were hospital-related.
Prof Cassidy added: "If he was kicked to the head the attacker did not use full force and or was wearing soft-soled shoes."
The postmortem found that Mr Maloney died from sepsis, or blood poisoning, as a result of pneumonia, which is a common side-effect of serious head injuries.
The six-member jury passed a verdict of death by manslaughter following the findings from the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last year.