ONE MAN HAS BEEN sentenced to nine years in prison for the manslaughter of a man in Westmeath 23 years ago.

Colin Pinder, 47, had earlier denied the charge of murder and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He was found guilty of manslaughter in July.

His co-accused, the victim’s wife Vera McGrath, 61, was found guilty of murdering her husband by the same Central Criminal Court jury this summer.

Bernard Brian McGrath, 43, was killed at his home in Westmeath on a date unknown between 10 March and 18 April, 1987. His remains were discovered in 1993 after his daughter, who was engaged to Pinder at the time of her father’s death, made a statement to gardaí.

Pinder admitted striking McGrath and participating in attempts to dispose of the body.

The judge described the treatment of McGrath’s corpse as “savage, depraved and barbaric”, according to RTÉ. The judge said that after McGrath was killed, his body was buried in a shallow grave before being dug up and burnt on a homemade funeral pyre.

The court heard last month that McGrath’s three sons said that they had been unable to grieve for their father in a normal way because he did not have a Christian burial site.

Sentencing Pinder to nine years, backdated to when he was taken into custody in July, the judge said a number of mitigating factors had been taken into account including Pinder’s expressions of remorse and guilt.