Man Jailed For Drink-Fuelled Newcastle Murder

A young man who killed a Newcastle teenager has been told he will spend at least 13 years behind bars.

David Kenneway, 27, was given a life sentence for the murder of Paul Owens, 18, on February 26 last year.

Mr Owens was stabbed in the chest during a fight.

Kenneway, from Dundalk but with an address at Kenard Villas in Newry, pleaded guilty to the murder charge against him.

Kenneway's former girlfriend, Lynsey Cahoon, 21, from Rodney Drive in Belfast, was handed a three year jail term for trying to lead police away from her boyfriend out of what the judge called a "misplaced sense of loyalty".

She gave police a misleading description and tried to clean Kenneway's clothing, but she later showed regret and co-operated with police, so her jail term has been suspended.

Kenneway has 68 previous convictions including offences of possessing weapons, robbery and road traffic offences.

The judge accepted that he did not start the fight.

A previous court heard how he had been drinking with friends in the Donard car park in the town when one of his group traded insults with Kenneway before the killer was subjected to a "vicious and sustained" beating including being kicked "square in the face".

The three chest injuries he inflicted on Mr Owens were a revenge attack straight after the beating Kenneway received.

(NE/GK)