Mum "tortured" by how her son's life ended - sentencing hearing of man with Laois address is told

A mother whose son was stabbed to death after he smashed the front window of a house and entered through the front door has told the Central Criminal Court that she is tortured by how his life ended and the pain he must have felt.

In a written statement Loretta Power said her son Jack Power was a hard-working man with a “big smile and laugh” whose “kindness will forever be locked in my heart”. She said that the four years since his death, which have included two trials for the man who killed her son,  have “taken a huge toll” as the family serves a “life sentence every day but we keep going because that is what he would have wanted us to do.”

Her statement was read out at a sentencing hearing for Dean Kerrie (21), with an address at St Brigid's Square, Portarlington in Co Laois, who was twice tried for murder but convicted by a jury of manslaughter for killing Mr Power after the deceased had entered his home at Shanakiel in Dunmore East, Waterford in the early hours of July 26, 2018.

Kerrie was 17 at the time and his trial heard that Mr Power went to Kerrie’s home because he believed the accused had damaged his car.

At today’s sentencing hearing Sgt Michelle Burns told prosecution counsel Michael Delaney SC that there were different accounts of what happened after Mr Powetr entered the house it was clear that there was a “scuffle” between Mr Power and the accused in the bedroom. One witness said that following the scuffle Mr Power was about to leave when Kerrie, who had moved to the kitchen, called Mr Power and then stabbed him once in the chest.

At his first trial last February Kerrie gave evidence and told the jury that Mr Power had lost his footing and fell onto a knife that Kerrie had picked up while the deceased was attacking his mother. The jury in that trial could not reach a verdict. Kerrie did not give evidence at his second trial but the jury heard that after he was arrested Kerrie told Sgt Pat Kenny: "He should not have come into my house. I was asleep. I heard a smash and the front window breaking. Jack was in the hall and grabbed my mother. He started punching and swinging kicks. I grabbed a knife that was next to bed. Stabbed him with it." Sgt Kenny said Kerrie was holding a bottle of holy water as he spoke.

A witness called by the defence said that the stabbing happened in Kerrie’s bedroom while Mr Power was pulling Mr Kerrie’s mother, Ann Fitzgerald, by the hair.

Kerrie’s barrister Ciaran O'Loughlin SC said on Wednesday, October 19, that what happened was a “tragedy” and “it’s not as if he set out and savagely attacked Mr Power. There was one knife wound and one only.” He said the jury’s verdict of manslaughter suggested they accepted that he had gone “over the top” in using force in self-defence but, counsel said, the court should take into account that it was “one and only one movement of the knife” after an intrusion into Kerrie's home late at night.

He said a probation report handed into the court showed that Kerrie is genuinely remorseful but remains at a moderate risk of violent reoffending if exposed to drugs, alcohol or other anti-social elements.

He asked the court to consider suspending a portion of Kerrie’s sentence on condition that he does whatever the probation service says is necessary.

Michael Delaney SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said that if the same offence were committed by an adult it should be considered in the middle range for manslaughter offences. He said the director offers no opinion on whether Kerrie’s age at the time of the offence should put him in a lower range. The maximum sentence for manslaughter is life imprisonment.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott adjourned sentencing until next Wednesday, Oct 26.

Evidence in trial

The jury heard a 999 call made by Kerrie at 3.44am on July 26, in which the teenager said that Mr Power had come "in the front door at him" and tried to hit him. He said he had stabbed Mr Power in the chest with a kitchen knife but that he didn't mean to.

The deceased's best friend Christopher Lee said he saw Mr Power going into the garden of the Kerrie house. "I saw Dean Kerrie's mother coming towards Jack in the garden and Jack pushed her back and she fell over," said Mr Lee.

Mr Lee said he saw Dean in the garden, that he came out towards Jack, turned around and went into the house. "Jack went into the house after him," he added.

Mr Lee went "close enough to the front door" of the house where he saw Jack and Dean in the middle bedroom through the window. "I saw pushing in the bedroom, Jack pushing Dean," he said.

 The witness said he thought Dean had left the bedroom first followed by Jack and that they went into the hallway.

 "There was a bit of pushing in the hallway. Jack was only a couple of feet away from me. I saw Dean coming from the kitchen with a knife in his hand. Jack was walking out of the house facing me," he continued.

 Mr Lee said the accused shouted something at Jack. He added: "Jack was nearly at the front door. Jack turned around and I noticed Dean moving fast and saw a knife in his hand. I saw Dean push his hand towards Jack's chest. Jack was only after turning around and this happened straight away," he said.

Mr Lee said that Jack turned and held his chest. "I was standing at the door. I was shouting at Jack, I knew what was after happening. I was in shock. I couldn't believe it," he said.

Mr Kerrie's best friend Dylan Jones was called by the defence and gave a different account. He told defence counsel Ciaran O'Loughlin SC that he was staying the night at the Kerrie home when he was awoken by the sound of glass smashing. Mr Kerrie got up first, he said, and went to his brother's room. When the witness got up he said he saw a man he now knows to be Jack Power enter through the front door. "He appeared to be drunk, he was kind of stumbling," he said. "He approached and pushed me against the wall and went into the bedroom and grabbed Dean." Mr Jones recalled seeing Mr Power "choking" Mr Kerrie and saying: "I'm going to kill you." Mr Kerrie, he said, was screaming, "please get off me," and Mr Jones said he told Mr Power: "Please get off him, he is only a child, leave him alone."

He added: "I thought he was gong to kill Dean."

 Mr Kerrie's mother, Ann Fitzgerald, was in the hallway next to the bedroom door when Mr Power grabbed her by the hair and "swung her side to side", he said. At this point, he said Mr Power stumbled backwards and then into the hallway and out the front door. Mr Jones said he didn't see a knife and didn't see Mr Power being stabbed but he accepted that it must have happened just before Mr Power stumbled backwards. He recalled Mr Kerrie saying: "I think I stabbed him, I need to call the guards." Mr Kerrie was "crying, in hysterics," he said. 

Mr Jones described the prosecution's case, that there was a scuffle in the bedroom but Mr Power was moving towards the front door when the accused took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed him, as "false", "complete lies" and "the biggest conspiracy".

He added: "This account is the truth and nothing but the truth. You are trying to make conspiracies but I'm telling the whole truth."

Mr Jones also denied that he or Mr Kerrie damaged Mr Power's car earlier that day.

 Mr Justice Paul McDermott told the jury of seven women and four men that there were three verdicts available. He told them to first consider whether Mr Kerrie honestly believed that Mr Power had entered his home as a trespasser intending to commit a criminal act. Secondly he told them to consider whether Mr Kerrie's use of force was necessary to protect himself or others from Mr Power or to prevent a criminal act.

The judge added:  "If you find that in the circumstances faced by him, that he applied such force as was objectively reasonable in the circumstances, then he has acted in a lawful manner and is entitled to an acquittal."

If he used excessive force but had an honest belief that the force he used was necessary then he is not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, the judge said. He added: "If you find that the accused knew the force used was excessive then you must find him guilty of murder."