Man jailed for ex-GAA player death

Published Friday, 14 September 2012
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A father of five, who pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a former Fermanagh GAA player, has been told in court that while he will serve at least five years in prison, he also faced the prospect of never being freed.

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Ciaran Woods was stabbed by 36-year-old Gary Philip Moane, from Brookeborough, twice during a drunken row at a house in Tempo in the early hours of 20 July 2010, in which a mum of two was also later stabbed and injured.

Enniskillen Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, had heard that Moane, who is an alcoholic, didn't even know Mr Woods and had latched on to his party to get more drink.

The Belfast Recorder David McFarland told Moane, of Lisolvan Park, that he could not be certain he could keep his promise never to drink again, and so it would be up to the Parole Commissioners to decide if, and when, the father of five should be freed.

Judge McFarland said reports on Moane indicated that when sober he represented a minimum risk to the public. But with drink taken the risk was greatly inflated, and as such he regarded him as a posing a significant risk of danger to the public.

Originally charged with murdering the 36-year-old Lisnaskea father of one, his guilty plea to manslaughter was finally accepted on the basis he was suffering an abnormality of the mind, when he first attacked and stabbed Mr Woods twice in the chest.

He then turned the knife on 37-year-old Kathleen McQuaid, at her Edenmore Road home in Tempo.

Moane, who also admitted threatening to kill another man, Damian Crudden, had been accused of attempting to murder Ms McQuaid, but this too was dropped when he pleaded to the lesser charge of wounding.

Prosecutor Margaret-Ann Dinsmore QC, had told the court that Moane, suffering from alcohol dependence syndrome, had met up with Mr Woods and a number of his friends drinking in the Stags Head bar in Lisnaskea.

Later that evening, they decided to move on to a bar in Brookeborough, but were refused entry, because it was late.

It was at this stage an impromptu party was set up in Ms McQuaid's Tempo home.

At one stage Moane and Mr Wood were alone in the kitchen and Ms McQuaid heard him plead: "Don't, don't, don't be doing that. ...I've got a seven-year-old daughter, don't be doing this."

When she went into the kitchen she found Mr Woods, standing with blood coming from his T-shirt, who told her "I've been stabbed."

She later locked herself in her car, while Mr Crudden hid nearby, as Moane reportedly kept going in and out of the house, making threatening gestures and shouting: "Come and see your friend now".

Moane later forced Ms McQuaid back into the kitchen, after smashing the car window with a vodka bottle.

During a later struggle she too was stabbed twice, but despite her injuries, managed to escape and run to a neighbour's house.

As she did so Moane made off in her black Hyundai Getz, which police later forced off the road.

It was defence QC Eilis McDermott who, this week, revealed that up until meeting Mr Woods and his friends in the Lisnaskea bar, they'd been complete strangers to Moane.

Ms McDermott said it was Moane's simple, total and sole desire to continue drinking which led him to latch on to Mr Woods and his friends.

The lawyer added that when the party arrived at Ms McQuaid's home, he "literally did not know where he was", and was only wanting to get a taxi and to ascertain where he was, when for some reason the drunken argument broke out.

Ms McDermott said unfortunately, whatever happened, Moane picked up a knife from the sink and in an "alcohol induced frenzy" carried out the stabbings.

For this, Ms McDermott said Moane wished to publicly apologise, realising that by his actions he had taken the life of Mr Woods, something that could never be put to right again.

Moane, she said, was now a man riven by remorse, who'd taken every opportunity in prison to turn his life around and has vowed never to drink again.

© UTV News
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1 Comments
Aisling in Lisnaskea wrote (252 days ago):
Throw away the key - he should never be let out again
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