A man has been jailed for 11½ years for viciously assaulting his 73-year-old neighbour with a shovel in the early hours of the morning.
James O’Neill (57) took a “selfie” of himself wearing a mask and holding the shovel as he lay in wait in a stairwell for his victim. Gardaí later found the photograph on his phone.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Patrick Hansard, now aged 78, suffered multiple injuries, including skull fractures, lacerations, haematoma, a fracture to his cervical spine and a traumatic brain injury, in the attack. He has no memory of the incident, but continues to suffer ongoing effects.
O’Neill, of Courtney Place, Ballybough, Dublin 3, was convicted by a jury following a trial earlier this year of causing serious harm to Mr Hansard in a stairwell near his home on August 17th, 2019.
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Passing sentence on Monday, Judge Elva Duffy noted the significant impact the offence had on Mr Hansard, and extended the court’s appreciation for the dignified way he has handled himself.
Judge Duffy said the attack was completely unprovoked and targeted someone who was 20 years older than O’Neill. She said there was an element of premeditation, in that O’Neill lay in wait for his victim and used a weapon.
The judge noted that O’Neill’s prior convictions were historic, there was an element of intoxication and she referred to a letter from his daughter noting that the accused was someone with the capacity to do good. She took into account that the trial had been run in an expeditious manner.
Judge Duffy set a headline sentence of 13 years, but taking into account mitigating factors, she imposed a sentence of 11½ years.
Sgt Enda O’Sullivan told Eoghan Cole BL, prosecuting, there had been a verbal interaction between the neighbours at a pub in the early hours of the morning. O’Neill left and went home while Mr Hansard walked home with his partner half an hour later.
Sgt O’Sullivan said Mr Hansard’s partner stopped to talk to someone on the way and he went ahead alone. A short time later, she saw a man wearing a white mask leaving the stairwell to Mr Hansard’s flat and going into O’Neill’s house.
She found Mr Hansard on the ground with injuries to his head and paramedics were alerted. O’Neill was seen in the area interacting with neighbours at this time.
Gardaí obtained a search warrant for O’Neill’s flat and recovered a phone that contained a “selfie” photo of the accused wearing the mask and holding a shovel. The picture had been taken in the stairwell near where the assault took place about 15 minutes prior to Mr Hansard’s arrival. Clothing recovered matched that seen in the “selfie” and worn by O’Neill the previous night.
O’Neill was interviewed and assisted gardaí by supplying his phone’s PIN, but nothing of evidential value came from his interviews. He has two previous convictions, one for occasioning actual bodily harm in 1992, for which he received a suspended sentence, and another for a public order offence.
Mr Cole told the court that Mr Hansard has since made a “remarkable recovery”, but still suffers from impairments and difficulties in his daily life. Sgt O’Sullivan agreed with James Dwyer SC, defending, that the mask appeared in an older photograph from months prior to the assault and had not been procured for the attack.
In his victim impact statement, Mr Hansard outlined how he had been born in 1946 and grew up in tenement housing in Gardiner Street, which was considered a rough and difficult place, but the first violence he had encountered was this offence, in August 2019.
He outlined how it had been his daily practice to walk to Dollymount Strand, but the maximum distance he can walk now is 400 metres, and he has not fully recovered his movement on one side. He said his life has changed completely and he will suffer due to the attack for the rest of his days.
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