Man jailed for killing journalist
A man who celebrated after delivering a fatal punch in a “gratuitous” assault on journalist Eugene Moloney has been jailed for three and a half years.
Gary Burch (aged 22) threw his arms in the air in a “celebratory fashion” and shouted “boom” after punching Mr Moloney in the neck.
The apprentice mechanic, who has no previous convictions, became upset during interviews with gardaí and told them he was disgusted with what was “a moment of craziness”.
Burch, of Kennington Close, Templogue, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to the unlawful killing of Mr Moloney (aged 55) at 4am on Camden Street on June 24, 2012.
Mr Moloney was taken to hospital by ambulance shortly after the assault but was pronounced dead an hour later at approximately 5am.
Judge Mary Ellen Ring suspended the last two years of a five and a half year sentence, which she backdated to December 15, 2012 to account for time already served in custody after his arrest.
She said, with regard to the usual injury, the effect of hitting someone on the neck can not be anticipated to lead to death.
Detective Inspector Sean Campbell told Pieter Le Vert BL, prosecuting at the sentence hearing last month that a pathologist report concluded that Mr Moloney died from a blow or impact to the side of the neck which cut a vertebral artery and caused a “subarachnoid haemorrhage” at the base of his skull.
But the judge also noted that the two men were strangers and said that late night assaults fuelled by drink are all too common. She said the courts had a role to play in deterrence of this.
She said: “Getting drunk or drugged and then engaging in violence cannot continue. Discharging people who are intoxicated all together on the public pathways is a recipe for disaster”.
She said the attack was gratuitous and that Mr Moloney was accosted verbally before Burch intervened with the use of force.
She said Burch’s action immediately after the assault was a feature of self congratulatory behaviour seen in other assaults. But she accepted that his later self disgust was sincere.
