Reporter competition twenty-seven entrant

Valeriu Melnic: fatal stabbing after three bottles of whiskey

The Moldovan national told Gardaí he was too drunk to remember driving a kitchen knife 13 centimetres into his sister's partner. A jury rejected murder but convicted him of manslaughter, and the judge treated his voluntary intoxication as aggravation.

Published 28 July 2026 · Remigration Ireland case ledger

13cmDepth of fatal wound

ManslaughterUnanimous verdict

8 yearsActive sentence

€793kConditional illustration

Ion Daghi died during a family gathering in Sallins after a night of heavy drinking. Valeriu Melnic had threatened to kill him, armed himself with a kitchen knife and inflicted the single wound that ended his life.

A family gathering became a killing

The gathering at a house in Sallins Park on 12 May 2024 involved five adults and three children. A dispute developed after extensive whiskey consumption. Trial evidence concerned three bottles and Melnic's escalating behaviour.

Daghi tried to calm him. The prosecution relied on evidence that Melnic told him, “I will kill you.” A pathologist found that the knife entered his chest to a depth of 13 centimetres and that death would have been rapid.

The account given to Gardaí

Melnic was initially too intoxicated to be interviewed. He later said he could not remember the stabbing because he had been so drunk, while accepting that the evidence pointed to him as the only person responsible.

He offered to plead guilty to manslaughter before trial. The Director of Public Prosecutions did not accept that resolution and pursued murder.

Murder rejected, manslaughter proved

On 22 July 2025, the Central Criminal Court jury unanimously found Melnic not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. This file states the verdict the jury actually returned and does not relabel the crime as murder.

At sentencing, Mr Justice David Keane accepted that Melnic was heavily and voluntarily intoxicated but treated self-induced intoxication as aggravating, not mitigating. He set a 13-year headline, reduced the final term to ten years and suspended the last two. The eight-year active term was backdated to 15 May 2024.

Arrival and public-record limits

The court heard that Melnic was a Moldovan national who moved to Ireland four years before sentencing because his two sisters lived here. He worked in construction. No prior convictions were reported in the sentencing coverage reviewed.

No source located establishes an asylum claim, unlawful residence, deportation order or post-sentence removal decision. This file therefore makes none of those claims.

Case chronology

Around 2021: Melnic moves to Ireland, according to sentencing evidence.
12 May 2024: Ion Daghi is fatally stabbed during the Sallins gathering.
15 May 2024: Melnic enters custody, the later sentence backdating point.
22 July 2025: A jury acquits him of murder and unanimously convicts him of manslaughter.
20 November 2025: Ten years are imposed with the final two suspended.

A transparent cost illustration

The Irish Prison Service reported a 2024 average of €99,072 per available staffed prison space, excluding capital expenditure. Applying that benchmark to the eight-year active term gives a conditional illustration of €792,576.

This is not a case invoice. The sentence was backdated, and actual custody, remission, historic rates and marginal spending differ. It excludes Garda, prosecution, courts, legal aid, probation and the human loss borne by Daghi's family.