A man who put on a mask before viciously assaulting his neighbour with a shovel has argued his 11½-year prison sentence was too severe and failed to give sufficient weight to him being a good father, a good tenant and a hard worker.
James O’Neill (57) took a “selfie” of himself wearing the mask, similar to those seen in the film V for Vendetta, and holding a shovel as he lay in wait in a stairwell for his then 73-year-old victim. Gardaí later found the photograph on his phone.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Patrick Hansard, now aged 80, suffered multiple injuries, including skull fractures, lacerations, a fracture to his cervical spine and a traumatic brain injury in the assault. 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 of causing serious harm to Hansard in a stairwell near his home on August 17th, 2019.
READ MORE
Passing sentence in July 2024, Judge Elva Duffy said it was a completely unprovoked attack by O’Neill on someone 20 years his senior. She said there was an element of premeditation in that he had lain in wait for his victim and used a weapon.
The judge set a headline sentence of 13 years, but reduced this to 11½ years after mitigation.
O’Neill’s sentencing hearing was told there was a verbal interaction between the neighbours at a pub in the early hours. He left the pub and went home, while Hansard walked home with his partner about half an hour later.
Hansard’s partner stopped to talk to someone while he went ahead alone. A short time later, she saw a man wearing a white mask leaving the stairwell to Hansard’s flat and going into O’Neill’s home. The emergency services were called when she found Hansard on the ground with injuries to his head.
Other images on O’Neill’s phone showed the aftermath of the attack, with Hansard being treated and the arrival of gardaí. Clothing recovered by gardaí matched that seen in O’Neill’s “selfie” and what he had worn the previous night.
CCTV footage showed O’Neill leaving his flat wearing the mask and carrying a shovel at 2.18am, before Hansard walked in. The footage showed O’Neill returning to his flat after the assault but before the alarm was raised. The mask was described in court as a Guy Fawkes or Vendetta-style mask.
O’Neill has two previous convictions, one for occasioning actual bodily harm in 1992 and one for a public order offence.
In a victim-impact statement, Hansard said it was his daily routine to walk to Dollymount Strand, but the maximum distance he could cover after the attack was 400m. He said his life was changed completely and he would deal with the upshot for the rest of his days.
O’Neill on Monday launched an appeal against the severity of his sentence at the Court of Appeal. His senior counsel, James Dwyer, said the prosecution was unable to say which of the victim’s injuries were caused by blows inflicted by the defendant and which were the result of a fall.
He said the headline sentence of 13 years was too high when compared to other cases where the prosecution was able to prove the accused inflicted serious injuries through punching and stamping.
The reduction of 18 months from the headline, he said, did not adequately take into account mitigating factors, including that O’Neill is a good father, a good tenant and a hard worker.
In written submissions to the court, O’Neill’s lawyers argued that part of his sentence should have been suspended.
Eoghan Cole, senior counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the sentencing judge was entitled to look at the injuries suffered by the victim and conclude that O’Neill had engaged in a “ferocious assault”.
“He [the victim] walked in hale and hearty, and he did not walk out; that was the evidence. He didn’t walk out because he was assaulted by the accused using a shovel.”
Cole said it would not be reasonable to conclude that the injuries were accidental, particularly where a jury had found O’Neill guilty of assault causing serious harm.
The Court of Appeal reserved judgment.
