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Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Devine jailed for 10 years
By Lonán Paul
THE family of a 21-year-old man who was stabbed to death in Waterford city over two years ago, has criticised the 10-year sentence handed down to his killer and said it was not enough.
Joseph Cummins Snr was speaking outside the Central Criminal Court after father of three, Robert Devine, from Wheatfields in Clonmel, was jailed for 10 years for the manslaughter of his son, Joseph Cummins.
The deceased was stabbed in the leg and fatally in the chest on November 24, 2007, after he spent the night drinking with his older brother and Mr Devine, at the accused’s rented house in Lower Grange, Waterford city.
Mr Devine (33), who has over 70 previous convictions, was originally charged with Mr Cummins’ murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter before the trial was due to get underway last December.
Commenting on the increase in knife crime and stabbing fatalities in recent years, Mr Justice Barry White said that he was “strongly of the view that deterrent sentences are necessary in the hope that they reduce the occurrence of stabbings”.
“Life in certain areas seems to have become very cheap, if not reduced to the level where there is no value placed on life,” he said, handing down the sentence. Reacting to the decision, Mr Cummins’ father said, “10 years is not enough for knife crime. There are new families here every week. Every week there will be someone here in my place... the sentences are just not enough.”
Holding a framed photograph of Joseph wearing a tuxedo, Mr Cummins described his son as a quiet, industrious young man who always worked hard. “He didn’t deserve to die like that,” he said. “It’s us that’s serving the life sentence,” Joseph’s sister Dawn added.
Giving evidence at the sentencing hearing, Detective Sergeant Anthony Pettit said that Mr Devine had left his home in Clonmel and rented a house in Waterford because he wanted a fresh start away from his former associates.
The court heard that he had 72 previous convictions, including several convictions for assault and one for possession of a knife.
Detective Pettit said the three men spent the evening of Friday, November 23, 2007 drinking and taking cocaine at Mr Devine’s house.
The accused told Gardaí that he wanted to clear the house the following afternoon and was trying to get Joseph Cummins to leave, but he refused.
Mr Devine said he went to the kitchen to get a knife to show Mr Cummins that he was serious. He said Joseph kicked out at him and he stabbed him in the leg.
He said they had another confrontation in the kitchen and that was when the deceased received the fatal stab wound to his chest.
Detective Pettit said it appeared that Mr Devine washed the knife and threw it into an overgrown part of the back garden, before calling for an ambulance.
The ambulance crew tried to resuscitate Mr Cummins at the scene. He died shortly afterward in Waterford Regional Hospital.
In their victim impact statement, the Cummins family said that they had been buying Christmas presents for Joseph on November 24, when they got the news that he was dead. They said the next day they were buying a coffin and a grave for their son and it was the worst feeling in the world. “God only knows how far he would have gone in life, we will never know.”
In handing down sentence, Mr Justice Barry White said he was taking into consideration the accused’s “11th hour” plea of guilty to manslaughter before the murder trial got underway. He said he was also giving consideration to the remorse Mr Devine had shown, although he said he thought that remorse was not apparent until the trial had been due to begin.
He back dated the 10-year sentence to January 2009.
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