Alcoholic admits manslaughter of uncle during drunken fight at house they shared
A POLISH national who admitted killing his uncle in a drunken fight over a bottle of vodka and missing cash was told yesterday that he inevitably faces a jail term.
Marek Marcin Sinko was remanded into custody ahead of sentencing on Thursday.
Mr Justice Colton told Sinko (38) he wanted to reflect until then on the submissions made in what was a “very tragic case” before deciding on the just and appropriate sentence to impose.
Sinko had been accused of murdering his 63-year-old uncle, Eugeniusz Sinko, on October 22, 2017 at the isolated Co Antrim home they shared at Townhill Road, Rasharkin, but the charge was withdrawn when he pleaded guilty to his manslaughter by an unlawful act, and not by way of diminished responsibility, because of his alcoholism.
Prosecution QC David McDowell told Antrim Crown Court that Sinko had phoned a workmate about his uncle, telling him
“I think I’ve killed him”, before alerting police, who found Mr Sinko’s partly clothed body laying on a pathway at the rear of their cottage.
Mr McDowell told Antrim court, sitting in Belfast, while Mr Sinko died from injuries to his brain, he was physically found with fractured ribs, vertebrae, cuts and bruising to his face, ears, mouth and trunk, while his nephew had injuries only to his knuckles.
Counsel said Mr Sinko had been subject of a prolonged and severe assault, and while the injuries to his face were consistent to repeated punching, it could not be proven if they were also caused by kicking, although the rib fractures and bruising to both sides of the chest were consistent with kicking or stamping with a shod foot. The court also heard that the uncle and nephew had a history of physical violence between them, often occurring after both men had been drinking large quantities of alcohol, which often was the case.
During interview Sinko described what had been “a brutal fight” between them, although he initially claimed he had hit him only once.
He also described knocking his uncle to the ground, before challenging him to get up, only for him to be knocked down again.
Mr McDowell said Sinko claimed he left his uncle outside washing his face by a tap, before cleaning up the blood in the kitchen and having a bowl of soup, and then going to bed. When he awoke the next morning to find his uncle dead outside, and had not realised the seriousness of his uncle’s injuries and that he never meant to kill him.
Counsel added while Sinko was entitled to significant credit for his guilty plea, aggravating factors included the prolonged assault causing multiple injuries and the fact his uncle was no physical match for Sinko who suffered no injuries himself other than to his own knuckles.
Defence QC Richard Greene said a remorseful Sinko had always accepted the enormity of what he had done in killing an uncle, something which he bitterly regrets.
Mr Greene said Sinko had been looking after his uncle, but given their mutual problem with alcohol, both uncle and nephew should never have been allowed to live together, resulting as it did in Mr Sinko’s death, described by his son as having the most traumatic affect on the family not only in the loss of a father, but also a cousin.
He added that what occurred did so because two people with the same problems of drinking and arguing were living together, a toxic mix in which violence inevitably went both ways, and that should not have been allowed to continue.