Sligo<\/a> Circuit Criminal Court on Friday. <\/p>\nO\u2019Connor, 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. <\/p>\n
His co-accused, father-of-five Simon Cavanagh (39) of Br\u00fa na hAbhainn, Collooney, Co Sligo, pleaded guilty to three counts of false imprisonment. <\/p>\n
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 \u201ccool\u201d vacant cabins in the business park and two youths \u2013 none of the victims \u2013 broke some windows and then left the scene. <\/p>\n
Two of the boys were still there with a 13-year-old girl when O\u2019Connor 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 \u201cover and over\u201d. They said he was screaming \u201cI\u2019ll kill you and I\u2019ll break your legs. Do you know who I am?\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor 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\u2019Connor\u2019s car filmed it on her phone. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor 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\u2019Connor then grabbed a long saw and held it against the boy\u2019s legs and asked Cavanagh \u201cwhich one will I cut off first?\u201d O\u2019Connor then held the saw against the boy\u2019s neck and said \u201cI\u2019m going to kill you now, I\u2019m going to cut off your head\u201d. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor then choked the boy until he passed out. He said when he came to about 10 seconds later O\u2019Connor was still punching him. The boy said he was \u201cin complete fear for his life.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cavanagh left and then arrived back with a third boy, and O\u2019Connor punched this boy with such force he fell to the ground and banged his head. His nose and mouth were bleeding. The boy was \u201cbawling crying\u201d and \u201cin complete shock\u201d. O\u2019Connor also struck him with a metal bar. <\/p>\n
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\u2019Connor warned them not to tell the garda\u00ed. <\/p>\n
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 \u201cfelt sad all the time\u201d. \u201cTelling a boy at 13 you will kill him isn\u2019t something you forget,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The other two victims also said they were \u201cterrified\u201d and suffer nightmares, poor sleep, anxiety and flashbacks. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor told the court that he \u201cdeeply regretted\u201d the pain and suffering he had caused, which was \u201ccompletely out of character\u201d and something he would have to live with for the rest of his life. He intends paying each boy \u20ac35,000 in compensation. Cavanagh also apologised to the victims. <\/p>\n
The judge described the evidence as \u201chugely distressing\u201d which was a \u201ctraumatic and horrifying\u201d experience for the victims. He adjourned sentencing to next Friday, May 1st. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A developer held a saw to a 13-year-old boy\u2019s neck while he pinned him down on a table,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,14169],"class_list":["post-416915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-sligo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}