David Mahon has been found guilty of killing his stepson Dean Fitzpatrick outside his apartment at Northern Cross, Dublin 17 in May 2013.

The jurors cleared him of murder but found him guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter after deliberating for over eight hours.

The six men and six women spent over seven hours trying to decide on three possible verdicts.

Mr. Mahon, who’s 45 had admitted admits holding the knife that caused his stepson’s fatal injury but claimed it was an accident and that he’d no intention to kill him.

The prosecution case was it happened following an argument over a water bottle that he’d stolen from his stepfather’s bike.

Mr. Mahon, who’s married to Dean’s mother Audrey, presented himself to Gardai a few hours after the 23-year-old died in hospital.

He told them they’d an up and down relationship but said he didn’t mean to kill him. He admitted it was his fault but said it was an accident – that Dean walked in to the knife.

The jurors began their deliberations on Wednesday afternoon and were told they could consider the lesser charge of manslaughter if the prosecution hadn’t convinced them beyond a reasonable doubt that he murdered his stepson.

They returned a manslaughter verdict just before 3 pm today after almost 8 hours of deliberations.