The wife of a man described as "a very dangerous criminal" was led crying from Cork Criminal Circuit Court yesterday after Judge Anthony Murphy handed down a 10-year-sentence. Patrick O'Driscoll (29) of Lower Killeens, near Blarney, is already serving a four-year sentence for aggravated burglary, and the judge ordered the new term to begin at the conclusion of that sentence.
O'Driscoll was found guilty after a two-day trial of wounding Mr James O'Sullivan, from Clonakilty, at Errigal Heights, The Glen, Cork, on April 3rd last year. The court heard that he attacked Mr O'Sullivan with a metal-bound hurley, knocking him unconscious, fracturing his skull, breaking his nose and left leg and causing severe facial injuries which resulted in his losing the sight of his right eye.
The attack happened after Mr O'Sullivan went to make a telephone call and passed by O'Driscoll's flat. He saw O'Driscoll and made a reference to an incident involving both of them the previous February.
Judge Murphy said O'Driscoll had fought the case "tooth and nail", had lied in the witness-box and showed no remorse.