Family forced to watch father die

The partner and six children of a man stabbed to death in a street fight had to watch and try to comfort him as he died, a judge said on Tuesday.

"They witnessed, as they comforted him as he died, your complete inhumanity, your destruction of their partner, their father, their family," he said.

Mr Justice Stephens was speaking to Francisco Antonio Notarantonio, 21, of Whitecliff Parade, Belfast.

He was jailed for 11 years for the manslaughter of Gerard Devlin.

Mr Devlin was stabbed in the back in front of his family at Whitecliff Parade in west Belfast in February 2006

At Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday, the judge said the attack was "ferocious", "callous" and "brutal".

Any sentence he imposed might come to an end, but for the victim's family, the consequences would be there for life, he said.

Mr Justice Stephens said the offences warranted "severe punishment" to send a clear message to others involved in violence.

Four other members of the Notorantonio family were charged with affray.

Christopher Notorantonio, 53, of Whitecliff Parade, received a one-year suspended sentence.

His 24-year-old son, William, also of Whitecliff Parade, was jailed for two years, as were Paul Burns, 24, of Dermott Hill Park, and Antony Notorantonio, 50, of no fixed abode.

Mr Justice Stephens said the stabbing was "damaging and distressing" to Mr Devlin's family.

He accepted that the stabbing was "spontaneous and impulsive" and was in the context of a long standing feud, but he said the fall-out had been felt by a whole community.

He told all the defendants: "Your despicable crimes added to the conflagration with serious effects on the wider community and ongoing lawless incidents in the area."