Son who stabbed to death drunk intruder who smashed his way into family home and attacked the 17-year-old in his bedroom is jailed for 3½ years in Ireland
- Dean Kerrie stabbed Jack Power when he entered his home in Dunmore East
- Power had been drinking and went home to discover his car was damaged
- He blamed Kerrie and went to the house, smashing the window with a rock
- Kerrie, then 17, told police that he found a knife by the bed and defended himself
A young man who stabbed and killed an intruder who smashed his window and broke into his home has been jailed for three-and-a-half years by Ireland’s Central Criminal Court.
Dean Kerrie, 21, was entitled to defend himself, the judge found — but he said that the use of force was excessive.
Kerrie was 17 at the time, but the court case lasted years before a sentence could be announced.
The judge imposed a sentence of four years and six months, but suspended the final year.
The last year of the sentence is backdated to June 30 of 2022, to take into account time Kerrie has already spent in custody.
The young man said he was defending his mother during the attack.
Dean Kerrie (21) was found guilty of manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday and jailed for three-and-a-half years after stabbing a man who broke into his home
Jack Power (pictured) was fatally stabbed in the incident
Kerrie stabbed Jack Power — a fisherman described as tall and well-built — when the man entered his home at Shanakiel in Dunmore East, Waterford in the early hours of July 26, 2018.
Power had been drinking when he returned home at around 3am to discover his car had been damaged.
He believed Kerrie had wrecked the car, and went to confront the teenager, according to The Mirror.
The fisherman smashed the front window of the Kerrie home with a rock before entering through the front door.
Kerrie told the police that he found a knife by the side of the bed and stabbed Power after his mother was attacked.
The sitting judge said he doubted Kerrie’s version of events, however, noting that he ‘armed himself quickly’.
The harbour of Dunmore East in Waterford, where the stabbing occurred, is pictured
Kerrie was twice tried for murder but was eventually convicted by a jury of manslaughter for killing Power in July, sentenced on Wednesday.
An adult who had committed the same crime would have faced a headline sentence of seven years, the judge added.
Mr Justice McDermott said: ‘Nothing I do or say will alleviate this suffering. The sentence I impose must be proportionate to the gravity of the offence of manslaughter and also appropriate to his [Kerrie’s] circumstances.’
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