A man who killed his best friend during a drunken row over a can of beer has been jailed for six years.
Paul Keating of Harmonstown Road in Artane, Dublin 5 admitted stabbing Mark Richardson but said he just “flipped and lost it”.
Keating told the court he has felt mentally and physically sick every day since he took Mark Richardson’s life on March 16th 2017.
He said all he's been left with are great memories of his lifelong friend.
His trial heard he’d been drinking at Mr. Richardson’s home on the day in question when Mr. Richardson’s son arrived with his partner and children.
Witnesses said he became angry when Mark offered his son a can of beer.
The jury was told Mr. Richardson got him in what was described as a “playful headlock” but Keating lashed out and a scuffle broke out.
Sometime later, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed his friend once in the chest.
He told Gardaí he just lost it and didn't mean to kill him.
The judge accepted his remorse was genuine before handing down a seven and a half year sentence with the final eighteen months suspended.
