A man has been jailed for the manslaughter of a friend he stabbed in a drunken row in a flat off the North Circular Road in Dublin two years ago.
Donatus Sutkus (23), a Lithuanian national of no fixed abode, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Central Criminal Court to murdering Andrius Zakarauskas (26), at St Joseph's Villas in Dublin on November 20 th, 2004.
Sutkus had only been in Ireland six days before the incident. The men had been drinking and watching films with other people in the flat when they began arguing.
The only witness was a relative of the victim, Roman Cernenkko, who told the court he felt pressurised to give evidence in favour of the deceased man.
In his defence, Sutkus said he tried to get the victim to calm down when the row broke out, but when he saw the victim's gaze look toward a knife on the table, he claimed he knew he had to get the knife.
"It was either me or him," he said.
Sentencing him to five years in prison for manslaughter, Mr Justice Paul Carney said he took into account Sutkus's "youth, his realistic plans for when he puts this matter behind him, and the loneliness in Irish prisons."