A man has been jailed for life for the murder of 20-year-old Joseph Dunne in Co. Kildare in May 2014.

Zoltan Almasi’s trial heard he beat him across the head with a baseball bat after Mr Dunne hit his van outside his home at Harbour View in Naas.

One of his brothers told the court today that “JoJo was a kind, gentle, and caring lad,” while another said their family would never be the same again.

Zoltan Almasi was born in Serbia but became a Hungarian national in 2007. He came to Ireland sometime later and was living in Naas for a few years before the night of the murder – May 16, 2014.

CCTV footage showed him chasing Joseph Dunne with a baseball bat that night. The fatal blow he delivered was not caught on camera, but several of Mr Dunne’s friends testified to seeing him being struck on the head.

Mr Almasi said he ran after the group with a bat after he saw them hitting his parked van from his bedroom window, but insisted he returned home after seeing one of them fall to the ground.

The jury found him guilty of murder last week, and he was handed the mandatory life sentence today.

In a victim impact statement to the court, Joseph’s brother Richard said: “JoJo touched so many lives in the short space of time he spent with us. A lot of pictures have been painted since this whole ordeal started and I’m hoping this one will be remembered as it comes straight from the heart.

“He was a kind, gentle, loving and caring lad in every sense of the word. He never turned his back on anyone that needed help. He always made time to visit his grandparents. He used to love travelling around with his granddad in his green van, or as he called it his Rolls-Royce.

“JoJo loved his family in every sense of the word and it’s so sad to know he won’t ever have the chance to start his own family. He was an animal lover and loved horses and greyhounds. The care and dedication he gave to them was second to none. As a family, we look out for each other.

“He had a wise head on such young shoulders. He was diligent in his work and commuted from Athy to Newbridge every day on a bus.

“Dad always called him the ‘little old man’. It’s not fair his life was cut short for no good reason. Nobody deserves to have their life taken and we can’t begin to explain the devastation this has caused. It has left a hole in our lives; an emptiness that can never be filled,” he said.

George Dunne, another older brother of Joseph’s, also read out a Victim Impact Statement.

He said: “JoJo was my younger brother and we played football on teams together from a young age. He was my best friend and I looked up to him. He was godfather to my daughter, who doesn’t understand why JoJo isn’t coming home.

He finished by saying: “Sometimes I wake up and think this is a bad dream but it is a reality. This is a life sentence for me and my family”.