A man has been handed a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence for killing a reveller who was “set on” and attacked with repeated punches and kicks while on a stag night in Athlone more than four years ago.
A postmortem examination found Paul “Babs” Connolly’s death was caused by cardiac arrest resulting from a complex interaction of blunt force trauma to the head in a setting of acute intoxication and the emotional stress of the protracted assault.
The 48-year-old single man, from Edenderry, Co Offaly, was assaulted for 21 minutes along Church Street in the Co Westmeath town in the early hours of August 13th, 2022, after he had become separated from his group.
Sean Munnelly (40), of Irishtown, Athlone, but originally from Co Roscommon, pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Sentencing him at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court on Friday, Judge Deirdre Browne stressed that whatever offence had been caused by the dead man’s earlier remarks to people on the street asking if they watched child pornography, there was no provocation.
She recalled video evidence showing how the deceased had been knocked to the ground three times by Munnelly and a co-accused. Several people on the street tried to intervene, but the assault continued.
At one point, members of Connolly’s stag party were present, and Munnelly could be seen back-slapping and shaking hands with them before continuing to confront Connolly despite his vulnerable presentation.
The judge said the victim was “out of it”, struggling at this stage, being both intoxicated and clearly injured, and posing no threat to anyone.
The final piece of video evidence showed Munnelly circling the deceased, gesticulating aggressively before delivering a left-handed punch that connected to the right side of the victim’s head, rendering him unconscious.
Connolly died in an ambulance on the way to hospital. A witness overheard Munnelly saying: “F**king deserved it, no one pisses me off,” as he walked away.
The judge noted there had been a number of kicks and punches and did not regard the fatality as resulting from a single blow.
She commiserated with members of the Connolly family and said their victim impact statements described a much-loved character, and their eloquent testimony spoke of a life well lived.
The judge considered a series of aggravating factors as she imposed a seven-year sentence. Noting the accused’s genuine remorse and the mitigating factors raised in defence submissions, she suspended the final six months for one year.
She backdated the sentence to February 27th, 2024, to account for time served on remand.
An unemployed father-of-one, Munnelly was out on bail and on a suspended sentence at the time of the incident and had been drinking and snorting cocaine. He changed his plea to guilty in June, just as a jury was about to be empanelled for an anticipated four-week trial. He had 102 previous convictions.
The court heard Paul “Babs” Connolly was initially set on by another man and Munnelly with punches and kicks.
Det Sgt Kevin Craig said the child pornography remark was the catalyst that triggered Munnelly and a co-accused.
Munnelly previously apologised in a letter read out in court, saying: “I’m truly sorry. I never set out to hurt anyone. There are a lot of lives devastated over my actions. I feel terrible. It’s like a nightmare I wake up to every day.”
In a victim impact statement, Diane Lynch said her brother was “like a big kid”. Nieces and nephews adored him, and the family was devastated that they never got a chance to say goodbye.