A young man was sentenced to a suspended life sentence at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork for the manslaughter of his mother.
Damien Donnan (24), De Valera Park, Limerick, had been found guilty of the manslaughter of his mother Jennifer Donnan in April 2000. Donnan had originally been charged with murder but this was later downgraded to manslaughter. He had strangled his mother in an early morning fight over a cigarette.
At his trial in 2002 it was revealed that Donnan told gardaí he grabbed the woman in a headlock and snapped her neck, and knowing she was dead, he strangled her again. The man will now live with his father at the family home but care will also be provided during day-time hours when his father is working.
The accused's father, Daniel Donnan, told the jury his son had become very reclusive in his mid-teens.
He would sit around all day watching TV, refused to eat or wash and generally did not appear to care about himself.
Yesterday Mr Justice Paul Carney sentenced the young man to a suspended life sentence for the crime.
"The killing was committed under the influence of a mental illness, I don't want to impose any further punishment. I don't want to punish, I want to control . . . I do want to protect Mr Donnan and society," he said.
Dr Patrick Doyle, a psychiatrist at Limerick Regional Hospital, told the court Mr Donnan would have to abide by a strict course of psychiatric treatment.
He said the young man was depressed at the time of the murder and had been subjected to "a lot of verbal and physical abuse from his mother, who had a serious alcohol problem".
"He should be on a drug called lithium," said the doctor.