Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘SCUMBAG’9 WHO KILLED OVER DRUGS TO SERVE JUST 30 MONTHS
Victim’s family storm out of court
A MAN who killed a father of one in a violent altercation sparked by a bag of Diazepam was handed a fiveyear sentence yesterday.
But as Jordan Snoddy, 23, was told the sentence will be divided equally between prison and licence for the manslaughter of Robert Molloy-jones, the victim’s sister called Snoddy a scumbag and walked out of court.
Earlier this year, he stood trial at Belfast Crown Court for the murder of the 30-year-old, who died in the Parkmount Street area of Tiger’s Bay in the north of the city on June 28, 2018.
While the jury acquitted him of murder, they found him guilty of manslaughter.
Snoddy, whose Co Antrim address is the subject of a reporting restriction, made the case he was acting in selfdefence after Mr Molloy-jones punched him then tried to steal a bag of Diazepam from him. During the trial, Snoddy gave evidence and said after meeting Mr Molloy-jones on the street, he went back to his flat and smoked some cannabis.
As he was leaving the flat to go and buy a bag of 50 Diazepam, his victim accompanied him to a dealer’s house.
Snoddy said he gave Mr Molloy-jones five tablets, and as they made their way back, he was pushed from behind at a set of steps then punched by the older man, who tried to take the bag.
The killer said after the attack and attempted robbery, he acted in selfdefence and punched the other man three times which caused him to fall.
He flatly denied kicking Mr Molloyjones as he lay on the ground – but this claim was rejected by the pathologist who carried out the postmortem. Prof Jack Crane concluded Mr Molloy-jones died from a bleed to the surface of the brain caused by a blow to the left side of his neck which ruptured his vertebral artery.
He attributed the fatal injury to “blunt force trauma” which he said could have been caused by being kicked or being struck with an object while on the ground.
During yesterday’s sentencing, Judge David
Mcfarland told Snoddy he accepted Mr Molloyjones launched an “unwarranted attack” with an intention to rob the bag of Diazepam.
The judge also told Snoddy it was “perfectly proper” he defended himself initially with the three punches he threw in self-defence. However, the judge said despite Snoddy’s denials he administered further kicks or punches, “it would appear there was a kick to the left neck area and that was the fatal blow. He added: “There were catastrophic consequences from that kick... resulting in almost immediate death.”