{"id":428285,"date":"2026-05-02T06:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T06:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/428285\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T06:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T06:52:07","slug":"macsharry-defends-intervention-in-case-of-developer-jailed-for-assault-on-three-boys-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/428285\/","title":{"rendered":"MacSharry defends intervention in case of developer jailed for assault on three boys \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former TD Marc MacSharry<\/a> provided a character testimonial for a property developer who decided to act as \u201cjudge, jury and executioner\u201d and gave three young boys a \u201cterrible beating\u201d<\/a> when they were found without permission in his warehouse.<\/p>\n

Cathal O\u2019Connor (40) was on Friday sentenced at Sligo Circuit Criminal Court to five years in prison with the final three years suspended for six years. O\u2019Connor must also pay his three victims \u20ac35,000 each. <\/p>\n

The father of two, of Farmleigh Manor, Sligo, pleaded guilty to three counts of assault causing harm to three 13-year-old boys at the Northwest Business Park, Collooney, on March 18th, 2024. Six other charges of false imprisonment and making threats to kill were taken into account. <\/p>\n

MacSharry\u2019s testimonial said O\u2019Connor had an \u201cimpeccable record as a law-abiding citizen\u201d.<\/p>\n

The former politician, now managing director of public affairs and advocacy firm Pontis Advisory Ltd, said in his character reference he was \u201cdisappointed to learn the details of what had occurred and firmly believes the incident was completely out of character\u201d for O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

Judge Keenan Johnson said aggravating factors included the brandishing of a saw to one boy\u2019s neck; O\u2019Connor\u2019s threat to cut off the boy\u2019s arms, legs and head \u2013 which was \u201cshocking beyond belief\u201d and caused enormous distress to both him and a 13-year-old girl who was made watch, and the repeated punching and kneeing of the three victims. The assault lasted over 48 minutes, with the boys subjected to multiple death threats.<\/p>\n

A co-accused, Simon Cavanagh (39), of Br\u00fa na hAbhainn, Collooney, received a suspended sentence for falsely imprisoning the boys.<\/p>\n

On Friday MacSharry, a former Sligo-Leitrim Fianna F\u00e1il TD who left the party in 2022 after an internal row, defended his intervention in the case while also expressing concern for the victims.<\/p>\n

He said he is \u201cvery conscious of the seriousness of those offences\u201d and noted the \u201cguilty plea of the accused\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Convicted killer allowed on family holiday before sentencing over serious crashOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

MacSharry said: \u201cI am particularly concerned obviously for the wellbeing and full recovery of the victims of this crime. Obviously I outlined that in a testimonial to the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he had been happy to provide the testimonial \u201con the basis that I\u2019ve known Mr O\u2019Connor and his family for over 30 years\u201d and \u201cI spoke to the character of the person I have known in that regard over those 30 years\u201d.<\/p>\n

MacSharry said he would have provided a number of testimonials during his political career and that it is \u201cnot something that I would do lightly\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was happy to do it in this instance. That doesn\u2019t mean for one moment I\u2019m condoning remotely the terrible ordeal that those young people have suffered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court must carry out its work. Justice must be served. Again I reiterate my hope that the victims are recovering fully from their ordeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish Times asked MacSharry if he had concern over the appropriateness of providing testimonials for defendants in court cases.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThere\u2019s no question that the provision of testimonials has served a role of sorts in our justice system over many, many generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacSharry said it was \u201ca matter for the Oireachtas and the judiciary to consider what\u2019s appropriate and what isn\u2019t appropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIn the here and now it is a matter of practice that testimonials are provided in cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacSharry has forged a new career in consultancy work, setting up a company, Pontis Advisory Ltd, early last year after 20 years in the Oireachtas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former TD Marc MacSharry provided a character testimonial for a property developer who decided to act as \u201cjudge,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,2112,43,14169,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-428285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-marc-macsharry","tag-news","tag-sligo","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428285","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=428285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}