A tattoo artist has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a father of two, who died after he was struck with a samurai sword.
Dylan Scannell, of O’Rahilly Street, Cobh, Co Cork, was sentenced at a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Cork on Friday for the murder of Ian Baitson (33). Scannell (31) was last month found guilty by a jury after a weeklong trial of murdering Mr Baitson.
Jurors heard that Scannell struck Mr Baitson, who owed him a small drug debt, behind the left knee with the sword in the Eurospar car park on Newtown Road, Cobh, on March 15th, 2024. Mr Baitson was rushed to hospital to have emergency surgery but died four days later.
Sarah Geasley, Mr Baitson’s former partner, said he was a kind man and a loving father. She said he was stolen from them in a “senseless, cruel and violent manner” just four days after celebrating their son’s third birthday.
Ms Geasley said one of the hardest things she ever had to do was tell her son his father is in heaven.
“He associates stars in the sky now with his Daddy. At night, if and when he sees a bright star, he will say ‘Look, look Mammy, there’s Daddy’,” she added.
Scannell, a father of two, expressed remorse for his actions in a letter read to the court by his counsel, Tom Creed, SC, He said he would love to take back what he did that day.
The evidence at the trial was that Scannell had previously sent Mr Baitson a text messages in which he threatened to chop off his fingers because of a drug debt, which he claimed had at one point amounted to €2,500.
Mr Baitson replied insisting he only owed him a couple of hundred euro. On the night of the attack, Mr Baitson had €185 in his pocket which he planned to give to Scannell. However, the evidence was that he never got the chance to hand over the money as he was attacked when they met.
“Ian was my friend and I will have to carry his cross with me for the rest of my days. It was a dark and dangerous time and it will haunt me for the rest of my life,” he said.
Ms Justice Eileen Creedon offered her condolences to the family and praised the eloquence of their victim impact statements.
