Juraci Da Silva jailed for Waterford manslaughter

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Juraci Da Silva was jailed for eight years for manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court on 27 November 2017. James Banville died from a single stab wound to the heart at New Street, Waterford, on 8 October 2016.

In October 2017, a jury found Da Silva not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. He was also found guilty of producing a knife during an altercation and not guilty of assault causing harm to Conor Hogan.

Mr Justice Michael White imposed a five-year sentence for producing the knife, to run concurrently with the eight-year manslaughter sentence. Both sentences were backdated to 8 October 2016, when Da Silva went into custody.

The judge said Da Silva had twice suffered very serious assaults by Mr Banville and Mr Hogan. The first was accompanied by racial comments and the second by sexual comments of a very damaging nature. He took the assaults into account in finding the eight-year sentence proportionate, along with the difficulty Da Silva, a Brazilian with no English, would face in prison.

Mr Justice White said that after the second attack the men had moved to another street and Da Silva was no longer under threat. Da Silva had earlier armed himself with a knife and decided to follow them. The judge said he did not try to run away during the third, fatal confrontation.

The judge noted that Da Silva had no previous convictions and had shown no aggression during the earlier assaults. The legal teams had 28 days to lodge an appeal against the sentence.