A MAN has been sentenced to at least eight years behind bars after admitting killing his friend.
Jason Murray, with an address at HMP Maghaberry, admitted the manslaughter of Paul Rowlands in Portrush, Co. Antrim in July 2022.
The 42-year-old was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court today, where he was given an indeterminate sentence for which he will serve a minimum of eight years in custody before he is considered for release.
The court heard that Mr Rowlands, a 46-year-old father-of-five who was originally from Cambridge, had been on an extended stay in Portrush from the beginning of June 2022, and was planning to return to England at the end of July.
Father-of-five Paul Rowlands, pictured with his daughter Lucy (Pic: PSNI)He was found injured and unresponsive in the Bath Terrace area of Portrush in the early hours of July 18 in 2022 and pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.
Murray, who was a friend of Mr Rowlands, was arrested that same day and admitted to assaulting him during an argument, but said he had left him alive and well.
A post-mortem found Mr Rowlands had died due to a brain haemorrhage.
“We’re grateful to those witnesses who came forward to support our investigation,” the PSNI’s Detective Inspector Claire McGarvey said today.
“A number of witnesses, who saw the two men in and around the area on Sunday 17 July, described both consuming alcohol and arguing,” she explained.
“Another gave an account of the actual attack, describing how the defendant assaulted the victim while he lay vulnerable on the ground.
“Mr Rowlands sustained heavy bruising to his ear and a laceration to the side of his head and a post mortem examination confirmed that, tragically, he died from a brain haemorrhage caused by blunt impact to the head.”
Paying tribute to Mr Rowland’s family, Det Insp McGarvey said the incident was “the most senseless and tragic loss of a man’s life, in an attack fuelled by alcohol”.
“Here, a verbal altercation followed by physical blows has had the most devastating and irreversible of consequences,” she said.
“Working with the Public Prosecution Service, the defendant has now been held accountable.
“At the same time, Paul’s family have suffered unimaginably and I’m deeply aware that their heartache goes on.
“My thoughts, and that of my team, remain with them.”