One-punch killer loses appeal to overturn verdict

One-punch killer loses appeal to overturn verdict

21 September 2022

A MAN who killed his friend with a single punch at Tyrella beach has lost an appeal to have his conviction overturned.

The Court of Appeal rejected submissions that Joseph Dorrian was wrongly convicted of the manslaughter of Darren O’Neill based on flawed guidance to jurors about the law on self-defence.

Twenty five year-old Dorrian claimed he felt under threat from Mr O’Neill during the fatal incident in June 2019.

Last year Dorrian, of Lakeview Villas, Crumlin, was given a three-year jail sentence.

Previous courts heard the friends got into a fight and Dorrian alleged he punched Mr O’Neill (22) in self-defence and being punched first. The single blow resulted in Mr O’Neill dying two dayslater.

Dorrian initially told police he had been invited to punch Mr O’Neill, but later denied it. Despite insisting that he acted in fear of being hit again, the jury found him guilty of manslaughter.

Appealing the conviction, defence lawyers challenged the judicial directions on dealing with allegations he had been afraid and how that impacted on his self-defence case.

They argued the trial judge made a serious error by directing jurors to find Dorrian guilty if they were satisfied that Mr O’Neill had asked to be hit because that would mean Dorrian could not have believed he was under attack.

Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan said: “Either the appellant used force against the deceased as a result of an invitation, in which case the force would not be necessary, or he hit the victim due to feeling under threat.”

She said jurors were made aware they had to assess the competing scenarios on the evidence, adding “in truth the appellant had no proper explanation for resiling from his initial account to police at the scene”.

Lady Chief Justice Keegan added: Therefore this was a focused, targeted and contextualised direction.

“The conviction is safe and we therefore dismiss this appeal.”