R v McCartney, McCartney and Neimontas
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | His Honour Judge Lynch QC,His Honour Judge Lynch KC |
| Judgment Date | 10 April 2014 |
| Neutral Citation | [2014] NICty 5 |
| Date | 10 April 2014 |
| Year | 2014 |
| Court | County Court (Northern Ireland) |
Neutral Citation No. [2014] NICty 5
Ref:
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down
Delivered:
10/04/14
(subject to editorial corrections)*
R v McCartney, McCartney and Neimontas
Sentencing Remarks
His Honour Judge Lynch
The accused in the present case were all charged with the offence of murder. The
victim was a Mr David Neill and occurred in the early hours of the morning of 16th
September 2012. Daniel McCartney was also charged with two offenses of criminal
damage on 15th September 2012. On the morning of the trial the Crown applied to
amend the indictment to add a count of affray against the accused Neimontas. There
was then an application by counsel for all three accused to have them re-arraigned
on the amended indictment. Kevin McCartney pleaded guilty to murder, Daniel
McCartney to manslaughter and criminal damage and Deividas Neimontas to
Affray. The prosecution indicated that they would accept the pleas of guilty as
entered by the accused and applied to have the murder count against Neimontas left
on the books not to be proceeded with without the leave of the Crown Court or the
Court of Appeal. This application was acceded to by the defence. The acceptance by
the Crown of the plea of guilty to affray by Neimontas confirms his peripheral
involvement in the tragic incident and I have sentenced him already to a term of
imprisonment which I suspended for reasons given at the time.
The background to the present offenses concerns a relationship between the
daughter of the deceased, Nicole Cahoon, and the defendant Daniel McCartney.
They had been in this relationship for about a year before splitting up in February
2012. The relationship was not approved of by the deceased, nor her mother Cathy
Cahoon, and this caused friction between this defendant and Mr Neill. Daniel
McCartney appears to lay blame upon Ms Cahoon’s parents for the breakup of the
relationship. This, as an example and according to Cathy Cahoon, is demonstrated
by an incident in which Daniel and Mr Neill came to blows when “a bit of a row
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