A developer held a saw to a 13-year-old boy’s neck while he pinned him down on a table, threatened to kill him and choked the boy until he passed out.
When the boy came to about 10 seconds later, 40-year-old Cathal O’Connor was still punching him, according to evidence heard at O’Connor’s sentence hearing at Sligo Circuit Criminal Court on Friday.
O’Connor, of Farmleigh Manor, Sligo, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to three counts of assault causing harm to three youths at the Northwest Business Park, Collooney, Sligo on March 18th, 2024. Six other charges of threats to kill and false imprisonment were taken into consideration. All three boys were 13 years of age when assaulted.
His co-accused, father-of-five Simon Cavanagh (39) of Brú na hAbhainn, Collooney, Co Sligo, pleaded guilty to three counts of false imprisonment.
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Garda Aisling Burke outlined a 48-minute ordeal which began around 4.30pm that day. A group of five boys and one girl had found “cool” vacant cabins in the business park and two youths – none of the victims – broke some windows and then left the scene.
Two of the boys were still there with a 13-year-old girl when O’Connor suddenly pulled up in his car and grabbed them. He slammed them up against the wall of the cabin and started choking and punching them “over and over”. They said he was screaming “I’ll kill you and I’ll break your legs. Do you know who I am?”
O’Connor then pinned them up against the outside wall of a large warehouse where he continued to assault them. This was shown on CCTV in court. The victims said a woman from O’Connor’s car filmed it on her phone.
Cavanagh arrived at the scene shortly after. The boys said they were very frightened when the two accused dragged them inside the warehouse and took their phones.
O’Connor threw one boy on to a table and pinned him down by his neck and kept punching him in the face while screaming about the damaged window. O’Connor then grabbed a long saw and held it against the boy’s legs and asked Cavanagh “which one will I cut off first?” O’Connor then held the saw against the boy’s neck and said “I’m going to kill you now, I’m going to cut off your head”.
O’Connor then choked the boy until he passed out. He said when he came to about 10 seconds later O’Connor was still punching him. The boy said he was “in complete fear for his life.”
Cavanagh left and then arrived back with a third boy, and O’Connor punched this boy with such force he fell to the ground and banged his head. His nose and mouth were bleeding. The boy was “bawling crying” and “in complete shock”. O’Connor also struck him with a metal bar.
The boys suffered black eyes and scratches and bruises to their face, neck and chest. A 13-year-old girl with the boys was unharmed but upset. The boys were then told to go and O’Connor warned them not to tell the gardaí.
The now 15-year-old boy who had the saw held to his neck told Judge Keenan Johnson from the witness box that the assault had left him in fear for his life. He suffers nightmares, panic attacks and “felt sad all the time”. “Telling a boy at 13 you will kill him isn’t something you forget,” he said.
The other two victims also said they were “terrified” and suffer nightmares, poor sleep, anxiety and flashbacks.
O’Connor told the court that he “deeply regretted” the pain and suffering he had caused, which was “completely out of character” and something he would have to live with for the rest of his life. He intends paying each boy €35,000 in compensation. Cavanagh also apologised to the victims.
The judge described the evidence as “hugely distressing” which was a “traumatic and horrifying” experience for the victims. He adjourned sentencing to next Friday, May 1st.
