Updated 18.16

A SON WHO told a court that he killed his father after a lifetime of being beaten by him has been found not guilty of his murder. James McInerney Jnr was found guilty of the manslaughter of his 56-year-old father at their Tipperary home in June 2009.

The Central Criminal Court heard last week that James McInerney, 23, of Lacey Avenue, Templemore, Co Tipperary, had told gardai that he hit his father with a shovel several times after the pair had been out drinking on June 17, 2009. He claimed that his father had begun threatening him and had come at him with the shovel before James Jnr took it from him. The court also heard that James Jnr claimed he “did not want to kill him” but had “gone too far”. He claimed he had snapped after a liftetime of violence at his father’s hands.

“Twenty-one years is a long time getting bet up,” James McInerney Jnr told gardai.

TV3 are reporting that James McInerney Jnr was given an eighteen-month jail sentence for manslaughter shortly after the verdict was handed down this afternoon.