A MAN who left his brother to die over several days after beating him with an iron bar has received a seven-year sentence with the final three suspended.
John Mahon (61) said he hit his brother a few times with a 675g (1½lb) tubular iron bar, known as a water key, to “shut him up” after a row about burning a kettle.
He later told gardaí he didn’t get help for his brother, Terrence Mahon (58), despite understanding he was badly injured on the floor because he thought the deceased would be “all right”.
Det Sgt Peter Woods said a neuropathologist had concluded the deceased lay comatose for several days before death as there had been evidence of healing around the head wounds.
Mahon, of Bentley House, Dún Laoghaire, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his brother at their Patrician Villas family home in Stillorgan between January 16th and 18th, 2009. Judge Patrick McCartan extended his sympathies to the Mahon family and said: “The viciousness of the attack is compounded beyond justification by the callous abandoning over a few days.” The judge said medical reports suggested the deceased had survived long enough for John Mahon to have sobered up.
Det Sgt Woods told Paul Carroll, prosecuting, that neighbours called emergency services late on January 18th, after Mahon had told them his brother might be dead in the house. Det Sgt Woods said there was no Garda investigation into the death until Mahon made admissions in a voluntary statement the following day.
He told Mr Carroll that Mahon’s admissions were confusing because he had problems recalling days and dates. But gardaí eventually gleaned that he had followed his brother upstairs after the kettle-burning row, caused him to bang his head off a wall by striking him with a walking stick and then hit him with the water key, leaving him comatose on the floor with a double-fracture of the skull.
Det Sgt Woods said John Mahon didn’t check on his brother for a few days even though he returned home from trips to the off-licence and fast food outlets to sleep.
Mahon told gardaí he regretted his actions, saying he wouldn’t have behaved that way to a dog, but couldn’t explain why he didn’t check on his brother or call help sooner knowing he was injured.
Det Sgt Woods told Mr Carroll that the brothers had been alcoholics and had lived in squalor in their original family home. But Terrence Mahon had managed to hold down a job as houseman at the Montrose Hotel for 39 years before he was let go.
Det Sgt Woods said the deceased had been let go shortly before his death and had “gone off the rails” with alcohol like his brother at the time.
The detective sergeant read out a victim impact statement submitted by the Mahon family which described their anger towards John Mahon for leaving his brother to die alone on the floor.
The family said they would never forgive John, understand his actions, nor forget the “inhumane” way he abandoned his brother.
Counsel for Mahon submitted to Judge McCartan that his client’s “unanticipated and spontaneous eruption of violence” was out of keeping with his previous existence in the house. He asked the judge to consider his client’s assistance with the Garda investigation.
The judge said he thought seven years a reasonable sentence but suspended the final three given Mahon’s early plea and the fact he is not likely to reoffend.