A CLARE MAN who stabbed another man in the back during a row has been jailed for seven years at the Central Criminal Court for manslaughter.

Robbie Walsh (23), with an address at Island View, Kilrush, Co Clare was found not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of Karl “Gobbo” Haugh (25) by a jury on February 13 last.

He had pleaded not guilty to murdering Karl Haugh at Marion Estate, Kilkee, Co. Clare, in the early hours of August 6, 2017.

In his garda interviews, Robbie Walsh said he used a metal bar to smash windows of a car he and his cousins believed belonged to Karl Haugh. He said his group were running away after this, when he saw “Karl and a right few” others with golf clubs and bars.

Walsh said in interview that Karl Haugh dropped a knife he had been holding during the ensuing fight, which he (the defendant) then picked up. He said he kept the knife as Mr Haugh grabbed him and started dragging him around “like a rag doll”.

Walsh told gardaí that he then swung his right arm and stabbed Haugh in the back.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis gave evidence that Haugh died from a single stab wound, which punctured his lung and led to massive bleeding. The trial heard that Mr Haugh had been a fit and healthy man prior to the incident.

Robbie Walsh maintained that he had acted in self-defence on the night and had not brought the knife to the scene. The defendant told gardaí in his interviews: “I’d no intention of killing anyone or doing anything like that. My only intention was to smash a few windows. I might be a lot of things but I’m not a murderer.”

At a sentence hearing this morning, Ms Justice Carmel Stewart sentenced Walsh to eight years in prison with one year suspended for a period of three years, backdated to August 8, 2017 when he went into custody.