A 17-year-old boy has been found guilty of the manslaughter of another teenager at a party in Co Mayo.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found not guilty of murder after a seven-day trial at the Central Criminal Court, sitting in Castlebar.
Dovydas Jenkas, 17, of Mount Street, Claremorris, died from a single stab wound to his heart in the early hours of December 19, 2015, in the back garden of a house in the town.
A jury of eight women and four men before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon yesterday found the accused, who was 16 at the time of the incident, not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.
The accused and the deceased had moved separately with their families from Lithuania to Co Mayo some years ago. The accused said he had not intended to hurt the deceased, but had wanted to scare him and to get him to leave his house after he discovered him in a locked bedroom with his 14-year-old sister in the early hours of the morning. He had been friends with the victim and had played basketball with him at school, but had been avoiding him after incidents including the deceased being suspended from school.
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Neither family knew that Dovydas Jenkas had been going out with the 14-year-old girl.
The accused said he had taken a homemade knife and had run down to the back garden after spotting the other teenager climbing out of an upstairs window. He said that he took the knife to scare him and had not intended to stab him.
Ms Justice Creedon remanded the accused on bail to appear before the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on October 13 for sentencing.
A request for a probation report and a medical report was made by Michael Bowman for the defence
Patrick McGrath, for the prosecution, asked for a victim impact report.
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The accused, who was accompanied by his mother in court, did not speak after the verdict. Members of the deceased teenager’s family were in court when the verdict was returned.