Irishman jailed for 12 years in road rage case - beat man to death with hurley

Altercation on the street escalated into fatal confrontation as Englishman killed

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Raymond Bates who lost his life in 2010 and Karl Donohoe found guilty

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An Irishman was jailed for 12 years on Monday for the 2010 manslaughter of a British motorist in a road rage attack in Dublin. 

Raymond Bates, a construction worker and a father of three,  died in hospital four days after he was beaten about the head with a hurley stick (an Irish sports bat) in Dublin on September 26, 2010.

Karl Donohoe pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was jailed at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on Monday.

His victim hailed originally from Durham, England and was working in Ireland as a quality control inspector on a gas pipeline at the time of the fatal attack.

The Irish Times reported that during the trial the court heard that Bates had drunk up to 10 pints of Guinness before getting into his four-wheel drive and repeatedly tailgating and flashing Donohoe, who had his 18-month-old daughter in the car.

Witnesses at the scene said they saw Donohoe, a crane worker, stop his vehicle at a junction in Irishtown. Both drivers had an altercation on the street with Bates shouting: 'Don’t be braking like a f***ing fanny, just drive your f***ing car.'



Shortly after their confrontation Bates reportedly overtook Donohoe’s vehicle and mounted a central island. At this point, the court heard, Donohoe took a hurley stick from the trunk of his car and hit Bates’s vehicle as it was blocking his path. He then hit Bates several times when he got out of the car, including striking a fatal blow to his left temple as he lay stunned and defenseless.



Bates died in hospital when his life-support machine was turned off on September 30, 2010.

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