Killer of missing Amy’s brother loses appeal

THE stepfather of missing teenager Amy Fitzpatrick has lost an appeal against his seven-year prison sentence for killing her older brother.

David Mahon, 46, was last year cleared of the murder of Dean Fitzpatrick but he admitted manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court and was jailed.

Mr Fitzpatrick, 23, died after he suffered a stab wound to the abdomen outside the apartment his mother, Audrey Fitzpatrick, shared with Mahon at Burnell Square, Northern Cross, on the Malahide Road in Dublin, on May 26, 2013.

A two-week trial heard Mahon was drunk, angry and agitated when he thrust a knife into his stepson with deadly intent.

Mahon claimed the death was an accident or possible suicide and said Mr Fitzpatrick had ‘walked into the knife’ while they had been arguing.

Seán Guerin SC, for Mahon, told the Court of Appeal his client was factually proven only to have produced the knife, adding: ‘That was all he did.’

Mahon produced the knife, he didn’t thrust it, he didn’t stab, and because he didn’t thrust it, he didn’t commit an act that could have amounted to a physical assault, Mr Guerin said. But the court yesterday threw out Mahon’s challenge to his sentence, saying a seven-year term was ‘typical of knife manslaughters’.

Mr Justice George Birmingham said there were aggravating factors including Mahon’s following of Mr Fitzpatrick from the apartment, the production of a large knife during the course of an altercation, Mahon’s leaving of the scene and the failure to seek medical help. In the court’s view, the sentence fell within the available range and the appeal was dismissed.

The victim’s sister, Amy, was just 15 when she went missing in Spain in 2008. She has not been seen since.