Dean Fitzpatrick’s father has said he feels his son’s killer should have been given a longer sentence and said he would never accept his apology.

David Mahon, who is married to Dean’s mother Audrey, was jailed today for seven years for stabbing Dean outside his apartment in north Dublin in 2013.

The 45-year-old’s remorse was one of the mitigating factors taken into account by Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan.

However, Dean’s father Christopher said he would never be able to forgive him.

“I thought it would be a longer sentence than what he got…I wouldn’t accept his apology under any circumstances,” he said. “Everybody’s aware what he has done.”

Of his son Dean, he said he was “a nice young man, only a young man – far too young to have died”. Dean was 24 when he was killed.

Dean’s aunt Christine Kenny added: “We are relieved this process is over as it has been a long road to get here. Today has given us some closure…Dean’s death is a huge loss to our lives.

“Justice has been served, but not as we would have liked it to have been…We will never forgive the man that killed Dean. He has out us through hell and back.”

She thanked family, friends, Coolock garda station and the family’s legal team.

She said Dean’s partner Sarah and young son Leon had been badly affected by Dean’s death.

Leon, who will start school in September, is “looking for his daddy”, she said.

“It’s sad looking at a little boy with no daddy there to see him going to school.”