Probation Act for depressed man whose cattle died

A District Court judge yesterday applied the Probation Act in the case of a farmer who became so ill with depression that he was unable to look after his cattle, and 60 of them starved to death on his farm.

Judge Michael Pattwell was critical of media reporting of the case at a previous hearing. He said that the case of Patrick O'Sullivan (43), a father of two, from Shanballymore, Co Cork, was tragic for a number of reasons after hearing how O'Sullivan had become depressed and started neglecting the animals.

"It happened out of illness, the sort of illness that can befall any of us, people from any walk of life reaching the stage they can no longer cope," Judge Pattwell said at the earlier hearing before appealing to the press to show some compassion for the accused.

"I'm not making any order with regard to publicity about what's been outlined about this poor misfortunate man and his family and what they have suffered, but when the media go back to their editors, you would want to be a very cold editor to make headlines out of the terrible illness and what this man and his family have suffered," he said last March.

O'Sullivan had pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to make sure that animals and poultry did not have access to the carcasses of the dead animals on his farm and to a second charge of disposing of the waste in a manner likely to cause environmental pollution on March 12th, 2003.

Yesterday Judge Pattwell heard that O'Sullivan was receiving visits from a community psychiatric nursing team every four weeks and he applied Section 1 (2) of the Probation of Offenders Act which records a conviction against him but spares him a penalty or sentence.

Judge Pattwell strongly criticised the media coverage of O'Sullivan's last appearance in court. He said the press had ignored his plea for mercy for O'Sullivan and that their treatment of the case had become "a media circus".

"This is a case where I have no control over the media. I did, unfortunately, express the view that there would perhaps be a certain amount of mercy shown. I have to apologise to him for making that suggestion. I did it with the best of intentions, but it seems to have worked in reverse," he said.

Judge Pattwell said he thought the press coverage of the case was "an absolute disgrace".