Two men have been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a young Cork father who was found by his family lying in a pool of blood in the street close to their home.
The family of Brian McKee wept and hugged eachother when a jury at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork found Jason Quinlan (29) and John Brett (28) guilty of the murder of the 24-year-old tonight.
Quinlan of Loughmahon Drive, Mahon, Cork and Brett of Leitrim Street, Cork had both pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr McKee on August 25, 2007 at Ballinure Avenue, Mahon, Cork.
The jury of nine men and two men found both men guilty of murder by a majority of 10-1 after deliberating for nearly seven of hours at the end of a trial which lasted for three weeks.
Brian McKee was stabbed 11 times after he was attacked by the two men close to his home in Mahon following a row involving himself, his ex-girlfriend, her sister and Jason Quinlan.
Patrick McKee, the father of the victim read a victim impact statement out to the court on behalf of himself, his wife Peggy and Brian's brother and two sisters.
"Try to imagine the unimaginable on a personal level, try to imagine your worst fears coming home in a split second, your front door being battered in the early hours of the morning and knowing instinctively that when the door was opened, the unimaginable had taken on a life of its own...Brian has been stabbed, he is lying on the road bleeding, he is dying," he said.
"The brutal and total unnecessary act that deprived our family of Brian and two innocent children of their father has left its mark on us collectively as a family and as individuals," he said.
He said the impartiality of the legal process had totally ignored what Brian was first and foremost, "a human being who was dehumanised by this case".
Mr McKee explained that like anyone else, his son may have been foolish and did foolish things at times.
"We loved him dearly and miss him terribly and I would like, if I may, to remind people that the right to life is a basic human right which I believe has been downgraded to nothing more than an aspiration. We need as a society to wake from the collective slumber we are in, open our eyes and look at the communities we are living in, where we allow these things to happen and pretend that they aren't."
Mr McKee said the impact of Brian's death had spread into the wider community of Mahon and Blackrock which was still shocked and stunned by the crime.
Speaking outside the courthouse on Washington Street last night after his son's killers were sentenced, Mr McKee said he and his family must now go back and try to find the pieces of their lives.
Det Garda Anthony Flynn told the court that John Brett had 68 previous convictions for offences including criminal damage, assault, burglary and theft and had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for assault in March 2006.
Quinlan had 33 convictions for offences including threats to kill, possession of articles, assault and assault of a Garda. He was jailed for two years in April of this year at Cork Circuit Criminal Court for a serious incident that occurred in Douglas in 2006.
Mr Justice Patrick Carney sentenced each of the accused to the mandatory penalty for murder of life imprisonment to date from August 2007 when they were arrested. He refused applications for leave to appeal made by defence counsel for Quinlan and Brett.
