TWO men have been jailed for life for stabbing to death a drug-addicted dad who was already dying in Dublin over three years ago.
The body of Andrew Guerrine, 37, from New Street South in Dublin's south inner city, was discovered on a stretch of country road off the N7 motorway in May 2015.
Mr Guerrine had last been seen alive shortly before midnight the previous evening on May 22 while on his way to sell drugs in Knockmore, Tallaght.
He reportedly had just months to live due to suffering from a form of bodily decay that is common in intravenous drug users infected by dirty needles or drugs contaminated with bacteria.
His remains were found by a passer-by in the early hours of the following morning, May 23, on Steelstown Lane in Rathcoole, south Co. Dublin – some 10km from where he was last seen.
The father-of-one had been stabbed 20 times and dumped on the side of the road.
Tynan and Fitzgerald
Stephen Tynan, 41, of Deerpark Lodge, Tallaght, and Raymond Fitzgerald, 37, of Knockmore Grove, Tallaght, were convicted of murder last month following a five-week trial.
Tynan was a first cousin of the victim and had pleaded not guilty, along with his co-accused, to murdering the "much-loved father" in an unknown location sometime between May 22 and 23, 2015.
Mr Guerrine's loved-one's watched his murderers laugh and share jokes in the dock during the trial at Dublin's Central Criminal Court – a lack of remorse and respect thought to have contributed to their life sentences.
Reading a victim impact statement in court today, Guerrine's sister Edel spoke of how Tynan had sympathised with she and her brother's father at a family funeral shortly after the murder.
She said her sibling was no angel but described him as a "loving father" to his daughter and a "gentle giant" who was neither violent nor malicious.
"Andrew's life was only valued at a few tablets that they didn't want to pay for," she said, adding that her family had been living in an "absolute hell" since the murder.
Tynan and Fitzgerald were connected to the murder through a car, CCTV footage and mobile phone records.
Both defendants were handed the mandatory life sentence for murder.
