Teenager given 11 year sentence

A 19-year-old man has been sentenced to 11 years in jail – with the final three years suspended – for the murder of a man while he was attending a funeral in County Kerry.

Thomas Dooley, a father-of-seven from County Kerry, was attacked with bladed weapons in Rath Cemetery in Tralee on 5 October 2022.

The 19-year-old, who was 17 and two months at the time of the attack on Mr Dooley, was not given a life sentence despite being convicted in July of the murder.

Earlier in March, the Supreme Court ruled that, in cases of a minor convicted of murder, a life sentence should only be imposed in exceptional circumstances where the intentions and actions could fairly be equated with those of an adult.

The 19-year-old man’s sentencing for Mr Dooley’s murder had been adjourned until Monday, pending the Supreme Court ruling.

He cannot be named because of his age at the time of Mr Dooley’s murder.

In another Supreme Court judgement delivered earlier in March, which concerned the right to anonymity of a child offender who turns 18 during either a trial or subsequent appeal, it was ruled that the offender should be entitled to remain their right to anonymity.

Five men who murdered Mr Dooley have already been given life sentences.

At the sentencing hearing in Cork on Monday, the judge said she did not feel a life sentence was appropriate in the case of the 19-year-old man.

His trial heard he had been in possession of a weapon during the attack.

However the judge said it was likely that people older than him had been involved in planning the attack.

In her sentencing, the judge also noted that the 19-year-old had written a letter to the court in which he apologised to Mr Dooley’s wife Siobhan Dooley.

The judge said he had also shown empathy and remorse in his interviews with Probation and Welfare Service officers.

Mr Dooley’s wife was seriously injured in the attack.

It was alleged by the prosecution in the murder trial that Mr Dooley’s death was an honour killing following the break-up of a relationship between one of his daughters and one of the convicted men.

During the trial, Mr Dooley had been described as a devoted and loving husband and father and a thoroughly decent man.