Thug who murdered his neighbour in a row over PARKING SPACES is jailed for at least 16 years
Darryn Madigan, 38, had been feuding with John Martin, 41, for six weeks before he knife him twice in the heart
A THUG who knifed his neighbour in the heart in a row over parking spaces was jailed for at least 16 years today.
Darryn Madigan, 38, murdered John Martin, 41, moments after the victim got out of a minicab with his partner and he began shouting up to the killer's flat.
Madigan and Mr Martin had been feuding over parking spaces for six weeks before it ended in bloodshed, a court heard.
On the afternoon before the murder, Mr Martin asked Madigan's partner to move her car so he could take the bins out.
Neighbours witnessed the killing after hearing carpenter Mr Martin hurl drunken insults from the front garden of Madigan's maisonette in the early hours of the morning.
Madigan took a carving knife from his kitchen and went outside to confront him.
In the ensuing scuffle, unarmed Mr Martin was stabbed twice to the left side of the chest with such force that the knife cut through his ribcage and pierced his heart.
He died before paramedics arrived at the scene in Kingsbury, North-West London.
Madigan told cops he had fallen down the stairs on top of the victim.
He then suggested he was defending himself before claiming he stabbed Mr Martin by accident when they fell to the ground during the struggle.
In court he admitted stabbing Mr Martin but claimed he did not intend to cause serious harm and only meant to "scare" the victim.
He had earlier admitted manslaughter but today he was convicted of murder by a jury at the Old Bailey.
Judge Warwick McKinnon sentenced Madigan to life imprisonment and ordered he serve a minimum of 16 years behind bars.
Afterwards Detective Inspector Joe Daly said: "We are pleased Madigan has been brought to account for what was a vicious attack that arose out of a minor verbal altercation.
"It has devastated John's girlfriend and his wider family."
Mr Martin was originally from St Mary's Donore in County Meath.
In the wake of his death, it emerged it emerged he once donated a kidney to a woman he had never met after seeing her desperate advert in the paper.
He went straight to hospital to see if he was a match and immediately volunteered for the surgery.
Sharon Keogan, a councillor in Mr Martin's home town, said after his death: "Donore is a very small tight-knit community and the Martins have been a part of that community for a very, very long time and it's a terrible phone call for any family to take."
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