From the archives: death by ornamental fish

A building site worker who battered his friend to death with the tail of a large ornamental fish was jailed for seven years.

Paddy O’Grady, 59, was cleared of murder but convicted of the manslaughter of Edward McCloskey, 44.

Jailing him Judge Michael Underhill said: ‘This is just another example of serious crime brought about by excess alcohol.’

Mr McCloskey, also labourer, of Wendover Court, Aylesbury Estate, Peckham, bled to death from the deep wounds, said Michael Worsley, prosecuting.

He suffered had 41 cuts and abrasions on his body and his neck was broken.

Both men were drunk when the argument broke out at O’Grady’s flat on the North Peckham Estate on September 26, 1985.

Later O’Grady, who turned himself in to police, said he had drunk seven flagons (14 pints) of cider.

‘I was very drunk,’ he added.

Tests on the dead man showed he was also drunk.

O’Grady said he ‘fought for his life’ when his friend came after him in a drunken rage clutching the ornament and ‘massive amounts’ of blood from both men were found in the flat.