Mark Tims found guilty of manslaughter after father’s death

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

Mark Tims was found guilty of manslaughter and not guilty of murder by a unanimous jury at the Central Criminal Court on 24 January 2020. The jury reached its verdict after six hours and 17 minutes of deliberations.

Tims had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and not guilty to murdering his father, Anthony ‘Tony’ Tims. The death occurred at their shared home in Rowlagh Green, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, on 13 July 2018. The proceedings were reported on 24 January 2020.

Tims was to be held at Midlands Prison until a sentencing hearing on 24 February 2020. Following the verdict, Justice Tony Hunt described the case as tragic and said Tims had not set out that day to kill his father.

Tims’s then-girlfriend, Elizabeth McDonagh, told the trial that his father called him a disappointment and said he wished he had never been born. She said Tims assaulted and kicked his father. In garda interviews, Tims said his father had repeatedly criticised him over drinking at home; he said he lost control, struck him with a cup and kicked him three times.

Defence counsel Vincent Heneghan SC argued that Tims had been provoked by his father’s words. He disputed McDonagh’s account that Tims returned to the kitchen and kicked his father again, pointing to the neighbours’ evidence and CCTV which he said showed Tims had already left.