A teenager who began taking drugs when he was 12 years old stabbed a man to death using a knife he kept hidden behind a bin near a busy main street, the Central Criminal Court heard on Monday.
The court was told the defendant, who is not facing a mandatory life sentence because he was a child when he carried out the murder, is at “high risk” of reoffending without support interventions.
The now 19-year-old, who can’t be identified because he was 17 when he first came before the courts, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court in March to murdering Aaron Keating (43) on June 13th, 2023 at Main Street, Ongar, Dublin 15.
The deceased’s sister Linda Keating told the sentencing hearing on Monday that Aaron was the baby of the family, 16 years her junior.
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“I never thought he would be gone before me,” she said.
“I never imagined anything like this would happen to our family. It’s something that you read about or that happens to somebody else and not to us. The effect of this is huge on all of us.”
She said she lives with the constant fear that “something like this” could happen again.
Another sister, Debbie Keating, said: “Sometimes I forget for a second that he’s gone, like when I’m telling a story about something that happened when we were children, but then the harsh reality hits that he isn’t coming back.”
John Keating, the deceased’s brother, said the family’s world was “turned upside down by the horrible events” of that day.
Det Garda Jenny Greene told prosecution senior counsel James Dwyer that the defendant was hanging around Ongar, smoking cannabis with a group of teenagers from about 3pm that afternoon. He had a number of interactions with Mr Keating, who had suffered mental health difficulties all his life.
At about 6pm, “something triggered a reaction” in Mr Keating, who pushed the youth up against a window.
The defendant ran to a common area at the bottom of steps leading up to apartments where he had earlier stashed a knife behind a bin. In later garda interviews, the accused would say that he kept the knife there for his protection.
He crossed the street but about 90 seconds after the previous interaction the defendant appeared wearing his T-shirt over his head and face and carrying a knife.
He ran towards Mr Keating and made “a number of attempts to stab him”, inflicting one stab wound to the abdomen, Det Gda Greene said.
Mr Keating collapsed within seconds and died from the injury.
State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster found that the knife had cut the aorta, causing massive bleeding.
The defendant went to a Garda station the following morning with his mother and admitted to what he had done. In subsequent interviews, he said he had been smoking cannabis and taking mushrooms when Mr Keating asked him for a joint. He said he laughed, refused to give him a joint and called Mr Keating a junkie.
He claimed the deceased attacked him so he ran to get the knife so he could “get him before he gets me”.
Seamus Clarke SC, for the defendant, reminded the court that a recent Supreme Court ruling has stated that children should only receive life sentences for murder in exceptional cases.
The evidence in this case, he said, was of an “impulsive lashing out by a child”.
Mr Clarke asked the judge to tailor a sentence to mark the seriousness of the offence and to offer the greatest chance for rehabilitation.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott adjourned sentencing to July 7th.
