Family traumatised by machete murder
Court hears tributes to Peter, 73, as killer brute is sentenced to life
THE “merciless” murder of a “timid and quiet gentleman” left his family and neighbours traumatised, a court heard yesterday.
Mr Justice Michael Macgrath said the victim’s home “should have been a place of safety and security to him – it was anything but that”.
He described the circumstances of the murder of Peter Mcdonald, 73, as shocking and traumatic for neighbours who witnessed it and the paramedics and gardai who attended the scene.
Addressing the grieving family, Mr Justice Macgrath extended his condolences and said they had come to the Central Criminal Court to show their support for the deceased and had done so with great dignity.
He sentenced Patrick Mcdonagh, 52, to life imprisonment for murdering his neighbour with a machete.
Mcdonagh, of Clonsilla, West Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to murder, guilty to manslaughter arguing that his responsibility was diminished due to a mental disorder.
Philipp Rahn SC, for the prosecution, read out a statement written by the deceased’s brother Eoin Mcdonald on behalf of the family. He told of growing up in Glasnevin and being sent to an orphanage where he and his older brother “spent a lot of time looking after each other”. He described his brother as a kind, reserved,
LOSS proud and decent man who looked out for others but wouldn’t accept help for himself.
He lived a quiet life and looked after his cats at his West Dublin home where he settled after working on building sites in the UK.
Mr Mcdonald said Peter had been excited about a visit to his family in England but “he was killed before we could get it organised”. Mcdonagh stabbed, slashed and chopped his victim with a machete and a knife. His twoweek trial ended on Monday when a jury unanimously found him guilty of
murder.