A 30-YEAR-OLD man has been sentenced to nine months in jail with eight months suspended after he pleaded guilty to making a threatening phone call to former Cork hurling manager, Gerald McCarthy, at the height of the dispute with last year’s Cork hurling panel last March.
Trevor O’Reilly (30), Anderson’s Quay, Cork, pleaded guilty at Cork District Court to making a menacing phone call to Mr McCarthy on March 5th last contrary to various postal and telecommunications services Acts.
Yesterday, Judge Con O’Leary heard that O’Reilly had a history of psychiatric illness going back to the mid-1990s but he saw from a psychiatric report that O’Reilly remained unrepentant over issuing the threat to Mr McCarthy.
Judge O’Leary said O’Reilly didn’t appear to grasp the terrible distress he had caused.
Judge O’Leary noted that Mr McCarthy and his family had indicated in a victim impact statement that they would “derive no comfort from any harsh treatment of the defendant by the court” and had asked him to be lenient towards O’Reilly.
Judge O’Leary said he believed that O’Reilly had caused terrible personal distress to Mr McCarthy and his family and that could not be ignored.
Judge O’Leary imposed a nine-month sentence but suspended the last eight months on condition that O’Reilly keep all medical appointments and take all necessary medication.
“I am satisfied that the sentence is appropriate to the damage caused in this case,” he told the court.