A man who admitted trying to kill his “lifelong friend” in an apparent mercy killing after he suffered a stroke has been jailed for three years.

Belfast Crown Court heard that in June last year 59-year-old Thomas Charles Hawkes donned his best suit, had several drinks and went to the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) where his best friend William Cousins was being treated for a stroke he had suffered three weeks previously.

Prosecuting lawyer Amanda Brady said although it was “strictly out of visiting hours”, Sister McDonald allowed him a five-minute visit.

She said that although Mr Cousins had been “badly affected” by the stroke, he was not in a vegetative state and was capable of sitting up in a chair and eating normally with assistance.

On the day of Hawkes’ visit on June 8, he pulled the curtains around his friend's bed but was seen by a member of staff “hunched over him and he appeared to be holding his nose closed with his left hand and his right hand was over his mouth”.

The lawyer said that when Sister McDonald removed Hawkes' hands from Mr Cousins, he told her “I can't let him live like this”.

Ms Brady said that while standing outside Hawkes was heard talking on the phone, apparently to Mr Cousins’ son telling him: “You are not going to like what I tried to do son, you would hit me a dig in the gob.”

When police arrived Hawkes confessed he had “just tried to kill” his friend, and demonstrated to them what he had been doing.

In police interviews he claimed that just a few weeks before Mr Cousins suffered the stroke, the friends had made a pact that one would kill the other if they became ill with no prospect of a cure.

Hawkes told police he “knew what he had to do” and had put on his best suit before going to the RVH “to give Billy a little dignity”, and also because he knew he would be leaving with the police.

Hawkes, from Rosslea Way in Rathcoole, pleaded guilty to trying to murder his friend, a one-time leading loyalist in the UVF.

Ms Brady said while Hawkes had claimed there was a pact between the friends, “there's no evidence to corroborate” his claims.

She added that Hawkes's actions had not had any detrimental effect on Mr Cousin's life and told the court that his death last December was in no way connected to the murder bid.

The lawyer said that in the Crown view the offence was aggravated because it was pre-planned and that while Hawkes was remorseful, it was because he had not succeeded in killing his friend.

Describing the case as unique and unusual, defence lawyer Mark Farrell argued that given the pact between the friends, the case was more akin to assisted suicide.

However in jailing Hawkes, Judge Tom Burgess said he was wrong to have taken the law into his own hands in making the “life and death decision”.

He told Hawkes that while it was said he was acting out of compassion, “such actions were totally wrong and any such compassion totally misplaced”.