Judge says sentence must act as a deterrent to others

A JUDGE said she needed to send out a message of deterrence after jailing Finbar McCoy for six months.

McCoy (26), admitted killing James McDonagh in a so-called one-punch attack in January 2016. The victim died later in hospital and a post-mortem revealed the father-of-two died from bleeding and swelling of the brain after a punch caused him to fall backwards.

Last year McCoy stood trial, with the jury being hung.

He was to go on trial for a second time, but earlier this month changed his plea and admitted unlawful killing.

Passing sentence yesterday, Mrs Justice Keegan said the case centred around an “altercation” outside the The Elk bar outside Toome, Co Antrim, at 2.30am on January 10, 2016.

The judge said: “The defendant threw one punch which struck Mr McDonagh in the face. The defendant and the deceased fell to the ground and in doing so Mr McDonagh fell backwards and became unconscious. He never regained consciousness.”

On January 13, 2016, the joiner was formally charged with murder and in response he told police: “I can’t bring words together to say how sorry I am. I feel so sad for the family. I did not murder James McDonagh.”

The judge said the facts of the case had been “well canvassed and are clearly tragic’’.

Mrs Justice Keegan said that a pre-sentence report stated the defendant fully accepted his responsibility in the death of Mr McDonagh and was assessed as a “low likelihood of reoffending” as he had no previous convictions.

She also referred to the “salutary lesson already experienced by the defendant from this situation” and the “significant level of remorse shown by the defendant”.

Defence QC Eilis McDermott said the death of Mr McDonagh “was at the forefront of the defendant’s mind” and that it was a “needless tragedy”.

She continued that the McCoy family had “always respected the McDonagh family’’ and “accepted the hand of friendship offered by Mrs McDonagh”.

Mrs Justice Keegan said she acknowledged that there were “sufficient exceptional circumstances in the case” which made it fall outside the normal sentencing guidelines.

She continued, stating that the defence counsel had urged that any prison sentence imposed be suspended.

However, she said it was still a one-punch case that had resulted in a death.

“There also remains the need for a deterrence in all these cases to ensure that this type of offence does not occur again,” the judge added.

McCoy was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, six of those to be served in custody and six months on licence.