Attacker who left father with brain injury is spared prison

A YOUNG man who seriously assaulted his sleeping father, leaving him with a brain injury, has received a suspended sentence.

Neil O’Donovan, 26, also used a hatchet to smash up bedroom furniture during the incident. The attack occurred on April 3, 2016, after O’Donovan had been drinking.

Garda Tadgh O’Sullivan previously told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that O’Donovan used his fists to attack his father, Willie O’Donovan, before taking the hatchet to destroy a bedside locker and other property.

Garda O’Sullivan said Willie O’Donovan was in bed asleep when the attack got under way. The hatchet was not used in the assault on Mr O’Donovan, the court heard.

The victim was hospitalised for two nights, and required stitches to his head. He sustained a brain injury which caused short-term memory loss and permanently damaged his sense of smell.

Neil O’Donovan, of Lyre, Clonakilty, Co. Cork, pleaded guilty last year to assault causing serious harm to his father at Teadies Upper, Enniskeane, Co. Cork. He also admitted a criminal damage charge.

The court heard Neil O’Donovan grew up in troubled circumstances from the age of six. Ben Shorten, defending, previously told the court that his client had a ‘huge chip on his shoulder in relation to his parents’.

A probation report found that Neil O’Donovan did not want to cooperate and wanted to be left alone to live in isolation.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said the case had been adjourned to see how he ‘behaved himself’. Neil O’Donovan no longer lives in the family home, and has not come to the attention of the gardaí since the incident in 2016, the court heard.

Judge Ó Donnabháin handed down a four-year sentence, fully suspended. O’Donovan vowed to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, and gave an undertaking not to attend at the home address of the victim in the future.