Teen jailed 4 years for stabbing intruder to death

A man who stabbed an intruder to death when he was a teenager has been jailed.

Dean Kerrie was just 17 when he stabbed Jack Power, 25, in the chest in July 2018.

Power smashed a window to get into Kerrie’s house in Waterford, south east Ireland, because he believed Kerrie, now 21, had damaged his car.

Power was stabbed once through the heart by Kerrie and died at the scene.

Kerrie was described as being someone with a ‘slight’ frame at the time and the victim, who had been drinking, was tall and well-built.

The court also heard the suggestion that the defendant’s mother was also assaulted in the melee.

According to reports by the Irish Mirror, Kerrie told police he found the knife at his bedside but the judge said he did not believe the court had heard the truth about the ‘provenance’ of the weapon.

Officers say they found him crying in the kitchen after he called the police himself.

The judge said he had taken into account Kerrie’s genuine remorse and young age at the time of the incident when passing sentence.

He added that although he didn’t start the trouble, the convicted man had resorted to excessive and disproportionate violence by using a knife on someone who was unarmed.

He was found guilty of manslaughter after the jury decided the defendant had acted in self-defence and acquitted him of murder.

Justice McDermott acknowledged the trial provided ‘cold comfort for relatives whose loss is profound and life-long’.

Power was described as an ‘exceptionally hard-working young man’ who was ‘fuelled by his father’s encouragement’.

He added: ‘Nothing I do or say will alleviate this suffering. The sentence I impose must be proportionate to the gravity of the offence of manslaughter and also appropriate to his [Kerrie’s] circumstances.’

The judge imposed a sentence of four years and six months, suspending the final year to take into account time already served.