A 43-year-old man told friends within a day of fatally assaulting his mother’s partner in Co Cork that “the world is better off without him” before he caught a ferry to the UK and fled the jurisdiction, a court has heard.
Andrew Nash, from Parnell Street, Thurles, Co Tipperary, tried to catch a flight from Cork to the UK but ended up taking a ferry from Dublin within a day of killing John Ustic (51) at a house at High Street, Skibbereen.
Nash, a father of five and grandfather of seven, had denied the murder of Mr Ustic on a date between September 24th and 25th, 2017 when he was first arraigned at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork on Monday.
However, he on Thursday entered a guilty plea to the manslaughter of Mr Ustic, which prosecution counsel Seán Gillane SC said was acceptable to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
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Det Sgt Kevin Long of Friday outlined the background to the killing, saying Nash was with his friends Tom Fitchett and Nicola Colgan on September 24th when he received a phone call from his mother, Suzanne Fenton. She told him that Mr Ustic, her partner of eight years, “was at her”, so Nash persuaded his friends to drive him to Skibbereen.
He said Ms Fenton, who died last December from natural causes, consistently told gardaí that Mr Ustic was never violent towards her. However, gardaí spoke to witnesses who said they heard Ms Fenton tell Nash that Mr Ustic had assaulted her occasionally.
Confronted
On the day in question, Det Sgt Long said Nash arrived at the house at 5.10pm and went upstairs and confronted Mr Ustic, who was in bed, and hit him twice in the head, causing a gash below his left eye. Nash then came downstairs and was followed by Mr Ustic and a period of calm ensued.
At around 6.30pm, Nash, Mr Ustic, Mr Fitchett and Ms Colgan bought some cognac and bourbon in a supermarket and then drove to Lough Hynen, where they consumed the alcohol before returning to Skibbereen at around 7.40pm.
Mr Ustic was highly intoxicated and could not get out of the car, so Nash aggressively pulled him out. This caused Mr Ustic to hit his head off the ground, causing a wound, but Nash and his friends left him on the ground in the car park.
A number of people saw Mr Ustic and called to the local garda station, which was closed. They were about to call the emergency services when Nash and Mr Fitchett returned to the car park, picked up Mr Ustic and dragged him back to the house on High Street, dropping him at the foot of the stairs.
Det Sgt Long said Ms Colgan and Mr Fitchett left the house, but Mr Fitchett returned around 9.44pm. Nash then began attacking Mr Ustic as he lay comatose on the floor, picking up a sofa and repeatedly smashing it down on his head and chest. He also punched him and stamped on a broken bottle by his ear, slicing his ear.
Fled the scene
Nash and Mr Fitchett then drove to Dunmanway, where they were involved in a crash. Mr Fitchett was arrested and Nash fled the scene, making his way the next day to Cork Airport and later Dublin.
Ms Fenton, who was upstairs when Nash and Mr Fitchett brought Mr Ustic home, found Mr Ustic unresponsive the next morning and shouted from an upstairs window asking neighbours to call gardaí.
Garda Pádraig Ó Conchubhair arrived and saw Mr Ustic’s body lying in a pool of blood near the foot of the stairs. He had extensive injuries around his face and a sofa resting on his chest. The Garda alerted the emergency services, but Mr Ustic was pronounced dead by a local doctor.
The then State pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy carried out a postmortem which found that Mr Ustic died from blunt force trauma to the face, neck and chest, with acute alcohol intoxication a contributory factor in his death.
Det Sgt Long said that Prof Cassidy said that having such a high level of alcohol in his system would have made it difficult for Mr Ustic to defend himself. But she added that his injuries were so severe that they would have proven fatal even for a sober and healthy person.
Det Sgt Long said that when media reports emerged about Mr Ustic’s violent death in Skibbereen, Nash said words to the effect that “the world won’t miss him” or “the world is better off without him” to friends.
Mr Fitchett was arrested and later given a two year suspended sentence for assisting in the commission of an offence by Nash by driving him from the scene. Nash was arrested but was not charged with murder until some time later, in April of last year.
Previous convictions
Det Sgt Long said Nash, who was born in Yorkshire and moved to Ireland aged seven, had 42 previous convictions mainly for road traffic offences, but also for public order, theft, criminal damage, burglary and assault.
The court heard that Mr Ustic had a daughter, Paige Edens, who provided a victim impact statement in which she said her father was the only person who really understood her and what “it was like to be an outsider in this world”.
“He loved me no matter what and made a point of telling me all the time. I was his biggest achievement in life and all he wanted was for me to flourish and become this amazing person who lived life to the fullest,” said Ms Edens.
“But I will never be able to do that because he will not be there to watch me. He never got to see me graduate university, he will have the chance to walk me down the aisle, never see what my life becomes and how much he has inspired everything I do, because he is just gone.”
She said she had “so much anger towards” Nash for causing pain in her life at a young age and that the “pain you have caused me” will never be forgotten.
Ray Boland SC, for Nash, pleaded for leniency and said his plea, albeit after the trial began, had saved the State some time and expense, He said Nash had expressed “very sincere remorse and regret at the death of John Ustic”.
Mr Justice Michael MacGrath thanked both counsel for their submissions, including Mr Gillane’s observation that the DPP believed the offence was at the higher end of the scale. He said he needed time to reflect on the sentence and adjourned the matter until July 21st.
