A man was sentenced to life in prison today after being convicted of the murder of John Paul McDonagh.
The jury needed a little more than three hours of debate before returning the unanimous verdict against Joseph Joyce.
McDonagh, 18, was fatally wounded in the lower leg during a street battle in front of 32-year-old Joyce’s home in Enniskilen in April 2020.
In a three-week trial, a jury of eight men and four women was shown footage from CCTV footage that captured Mr McDonagh’s fatal wound.
Surveillance footage shows Joyce standing on the street in front of her home.
Waving a hook in one hand and a plastic bottle filled with ammonia in the other, the footage showed Joyce taking part in what the Crown described as a “street battle” against brothers Gerard, John and Jimmy McDonagh.
The footage also showed Joyce inflicting a fatal blow to the back of the victim’s left leg.
Although medical care was provided at both the scene and the Southwest Acute Hospital, the teenager died on the morning of April 13, 2020.
After his arrest, Joyce claimed to have acted in self-defense and to protect himself, his family and his home in Cullen Meadow from an attack by the three brothers, who were armed with a knife, a bottle and a garden shovel.
However, jurors rejected Joyce’s allegations of self-defense and found him guilty of murder.
The father of three, based at Clon Elagh in Derry, was also unanimously found guilty of injuring Gerard McDonagh in the same incident, possessing two weapons for the crime – a hook and a bottle of ammonia – and a charge of causing a collision.
Before the jury returned his sentence, Joyce crossed himself in the dock at the Dungannon Crown Court in Belfast, and after the guilty verdicts he received a life sentence.
Judge Rooney thanked the 12 members of the jury for their service, then turned to Joyce and said: “The only sentence I can give you is life, so we will go back and look at the tariff more. late.
“You will be informed when this will be and your guarantee will be revoked, obviously.
As her husband was taken out of the dock and detained by prison officials, Ellen Joyce fell to her knees, began screaming, and said, “My Joe didn’t mean that. It was not meant to happen. God knows that. My children and I need him. We need Joe. “
Joyce will be convicted at a later date.
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