Man sentenced to life in prison for killing ex-wife’s partner dies behind bars

Anthony Paget, who had once received an award for rescuing a bus driver from the River Liffey, died in Mountjoy Prison yesterday where he had been jailed last year for the 2019 killing.

It had been reported that Paget died of pneumonia although a source would only confirm that he had died while in prison.

In a statement, the Irish Prison Service said they could confirm a “death in custody” in Mountjoy Prison on January 5.

“All deaths in custody are investigated by the Irish Prison Service, the Inspector of Prisons and An Garda Siochana, where circumstances warrant,” the statement reads.

In May 2021, Anthony Paget was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Aidan McMenamy at Clinch’s Court, North Strand Road, Dublin 3 by Ms Justice Eileen Creedon.

His trial heard that Paget stabbed Mr McMenamy in the early hours of the morning during a row over Paget’s estranged wife Candice Paget.

Paget, of Carnlough Road, Cabra, Dublin, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter but a jury found him guilty of murder by a unanimous verdict following a week-long trial the previous month.

Paget had been awarded an Irish Water Safety Award in 2000 after he and another man pulled a Bus Eireann driver from the River Liffey.

He had helped lift the unconscious driver from a submerged section of the bus after it crashed through a wall at Butt Bridge.