Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
8YRS FOR MAN WHO21 KILLED NEIGHBOUR
James stabbed 33 times by schizophrenic
A PARANOID schizophrenic was caged indefinitely yesterday for stabbing his neighbour to death.
James Brendan Patrick Devine will be in custody for at least eight years.
The 44-year-old stabbed his victim 33 times in a “brutal and unnecessary” attack and stole £6,000 after a cocktail of Buckfast and medication.
Mr Justice Colton said 62-year-old James Hughes “pleaded for his life but that didn’t stop him”.
Devine has a history of violent offending –including stabbing two fellow residents at a hostel. After the killing in 2016 the accused left Divis Tower, West Belfast, and visited relatives in Ballymoney, Co Antrim.
Mr Hughes was last seen on November 4. Two days later Devine handed his sister cash and said: “Where I’m going, I’ll not need it.”
Over dinner he told his sister he killed “Seamus” after a row. She contacted the PSNI and Devine was arrested on November 6.
In Musgrave Street police station, Belfast, while his hands were swabbed for evidence, he told the officer to “do a good job on this one... it’s the one I stabbed him with”. A murder charge was dropped to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Mr Justice Colton told Belfast Crown Court of Devine’s “traumatic” childhood.
And after handing the minimum term at Shannon Unit in Knockbracken Healthcare Clinic, the judge added: “Even if he is released on licence, he will be liable to be recalled to prison if at any time he does not comply with the terms”
BELFAST CROWN COURT YESTERDAY