Coolock Man Convicted of Murder

Mr. Alan Walsh (39) was today sentenced to life in prision for the
murder of Mr. Dermot Sheridan in August 2007.

Erwin Mill-Arden Sc, defence for the accused, asked the judge to
consider that Mr. Walsh suffered from depression and that he had no
previous convictions. Mr. Justice Barry White said he was bound by the
mandatory sentence of life for a verdict of murder.

Mr. Justice White sentenced Mr. Walsh to 7 years for the second charge
of arson to be served concurrrently with his life sentence.

Mr. Walsh , 43 Edenmore Park Coolock, was accused of murdering Mr.
Sheridan at Red Court, Seafield Road East, Clontarf between the 8th
and 9th of August 2007 and setting the body alight. Mr. Walsh denied
both charges.

The court heard that on the morning of the 9th of August at 3.20am Mr.
Walsh presented himself at the front desk of Raheny Garda station.
Garda Paul Daly testified that Mr. Walsh said: "I think I just killed
my friend stone dead more or less and then I burned him."

The fire brigade found the badly burnt body behind the door of the
kitchen in the derilict house in Clontarf. The victim impact statement
read by Mr. Sheridan's cousin revealed that it took several weeks to
positively identify the body as that of Mr. Sheridan.

The court heard that Mr. Walsh, along with the deceased and another
man Mr. Thomas Fitzpatrick were drinking in St. Annes Park since the
early afernoon. When the park closed at 9.00pm the three men went to
the house in Clontaf which they knew to be open and delerlict.

At approxamatly 1.00am an altercation broke out between the accused
and the deceased in which Mr. Walsh claimed that Mr. Sherdian had made
derogatory comments about his family.

He alleged that the deceased insulted his father and said he was just
like him. Mr. Walsh's father was in hospital at the time with a
alcohol related liver complaint. He alleged that Mr. Sheridan also
said that his family were 'scum'.

During his interview with Gadai in Raheny the accussed alleged that
Mr. Sheridan lunged at him but did not hit him. He said that he
punched Mr. Walsh in the face and then took a wine bottle from the
floor and hit him over the head. When the bottle did not break he
tried 3 or 4 other bottles.

Mr. Walsh said that he began kicking Mr. Sheridan. He thought that he
was kicking for about an hour and that he stopped periodically for
ciggerate breaks. He would then get enraged once again when Mr.
Sheridan began to moan.

Mr. Walsh proceeded to cover Mr. Sheridan with newspapers and set them
alight. He told Gardai: "He deserved it. Nobody slags off my father
and my family."

Mr. Walsh told the court that the deceased had hit him and that he had
drunk more than he orgionaly told gardai. When questioned about the
inconsistencies between his evidence and what he told Gardai, he
simply responed that he probaly did tell them something different.

Mr. Mill-Arden SC contested that the accussed was guilty of unlawful
killing and not murder. Walsh claimed that he went out of his head for
the duration of the attack.

Mr. Sheridan's cousin speaking to the court in a victim impact
statement and later outside the court spoke of the loss felt by the
family. He described the deceased as kind hearted, funny and genuine.

He spoke of how the deceased mother had died a few months after the
killing never having come to terms with death. The manner in which he
died makes it difficult for the family to accept.

He expressed his gratitude to the Gardai and the DPP and acknowledged
the hardship of the accused family at this time.

Outside the court he reiterated that Mr. Sheridan had been trying to
turn his life around. He was not homeless and not a drug user. He
admitted that he a problem with alchol but was trying to change.