Ryan Kearney jailed for nine years for manslaughter of Jeffrey Jackson

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

Ryan Kearney was sentenced at the Central Criminal Court on 31 July 2025 to 10 years in prison, with the final year suspended for three years, for the manslaughter of Jeffrey Jackson. The sentence was backdated to 8 February 2024, when Kearney went into custody.

Kearney had pleaded not guilty to murdering Jackson, 50, at The Lamps, School Street, Kilcock, Co Kildare, on 8 February 2024. A jury found him not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. The verdict was reported on 4 July 2025.

At trial, the prosecution argued that the knife injuries did not fit Kearney’s account of self-defence. In his garda interviews, Kearney said he took a knife from Jackson after a scuffle, gave him a few jabs, feared for his life and had no intention to kill him. Kearney later accepted that his initial account blaming balaclava-clad men was a lie.

Mr Justice Paul Burns said the violence was extreme and sustained, and Jackson’s ability to defend himself had been impaired by intoxication. He said no evidence explained why Kearney could not have retreated. The judge agreed with the defence submission that the evidence supported partial self-defence and approached sentencing on the basis of self-defence using excessive force.

The judge set a headline sentence of 12 years and six months. In mitigation, he noted that Kearney had offered a manslaughter plea before trial, which the Director of Public Prosecutions did not accept; his serious previous offending was not violent; he had a long history of alcohol dependency and abuse; and he had expressed remorse in a letter.