Belturbet man sentenced to life imprisonment for brutal stabbing

A Belturbet man has been sentenced to serve life in prison for the murder of a Limerick father-of-two in an attack during which he slit his victim’s throat and stabbed him over 40 times.
Gerard Manning (33) of Upper Gerald Griffin Street, in Limerick, originally from Erne Hill, Belturbet, had pleaded not guilty to murdering 54-year-old Martin Purcell on dates between September 28 and 30, 2011.
Manning, who has 115 previous convictions including for firearms offences, possession of knives, domestic violence, endangerment and burglary, was on bail when he carried out the murder.
The attack was said to have had no known motive, the Central Criminal Court trial hearing in Dublin heard last week.
Mr Purcell’s body was discovered at his home apartment on Wickham Street, Limerick, by his landlord after neighbours noticed he hadn’t collected his post. When his body was found, his trousers and underwear had been pulled down and he had 41 wounds, some of which fractured numerous bones and injured his heart and lungs, as well as several other organs.
Pathologist Dr Declan Gilsenan described the killing in evidence as being unusual because of the so-called “methodical” nature of the wounds concentrated around the heart, as if “almost in some sort of ritual”.
Mr Purcell’s throat was cut, severing his jugular vein, and post-mortem findings showed he received this first and potentially fatal wound from behind and while sitting in a chair in his living room.
Following this, the deceased was then placed lying on his apartment floor and stabbed in a “strangely methodical way”.
Mr Gilsenan said he had been at more than 100 murder scenes but that this one was unusual.
“This doesn’t seem to have been frenzied. It seems controlled.
“I don’t think he was alive to any extent after he was put on the ground, and maybe not before that,” he said.
A subsequent garda forensic investigation of the scene found Manning’s left thumb print in Mr Purcell’s blood, both on the chair in which the victim was found dead, as well as on the hot tap in the kitchen. Two of Manning’s fingerprints were found on a CD case under a coffee table at the scene.
A stereo belonging to the deceased was also later found in Manning’s flat, while keys to Mr Purcell’s home were discovered on waste ground next to where the defendant lived in Limerick.
In garda interviews, Manning denied knowing Mr Purcell or the fact that he had ever been in the dead man’s home.
Contrary to his alibi, Manning was captured on CCTV walking in Limerick at times when he said he was supposed to be elsewhere. He added that he had found the stereo lying on the street.
In conclusion, the prosecution said all this was powerful and compelling evidence of Manning’s involvement in Mr Purcell’s murder.
Úna Ni Raifeartaigh SC, prosecuting, noted in her closing speech that the defendant’s only explanation for his bloodied fingerprints being found at the scene was that it was a “stitch up”.
It took the jury of seven men and five women nearly five hours to reach the majority 11 to 1 verdict needed to convict Manning of the fatal killing of Mr Purcell, for which the defendant is now facing a life in prison.