Second man guilty over O’Neill killing
Convicted pair to face sentencing for fatal beating
A SECOND man has been found guilty of the manslaughter of Matt O’Neill three days after Christmas 2022.
Ricardo Hoey, 21, of Ardcarraig in Carrigaline, Co. Cork, went on trial at a Central Criminal Court earlier this month charged with the murder of Mr O’Neill, 29, on December 28, 2022.
The attack on Mr O’Neill, who was punched and kicked, took place in the Glenwood Estate in Carrigaline as the victim was walking back to his home from a petrol station.
He was transferred to Cork University Hospital (CUH) with his injuries and lapsed into a coma. He never regained consciousness and died in hospital 11 days later.
The jury of six women and six men recorded a 10-2 majority verdict at lunchtime yesterday having deliberated for 18 hours and 42 minutes.
Judge Siobhán Lankford thanked the jury for their diligence and attention to detail in the ‘emotional’ trial. She excused them from jury service for a period of ten years.
Previously, the jury deliberated for 14 hours and 47 minutes before they returned with the same verdict in relation to his co-accused Jordan Deasy, 19, of Ravensdale, Heron’s Wood, Carrigaline, last Thursday. Probation and welfare reports are to be created for both men, who have been remanded in custody for sentencing at a later date.
Victim impact statements will be read out at the sentencing hearing.
When the trial got under way, prosecution barrister Jane Hyland SC said Mr O’Neill lived at Glenwood Close in Carrigaline with his parents Eileen and Pat. She said he loved the outdoors and sports and was an ‘accomplished swimmer’. However, she stated that during his teenage years he developed an addiction.
She noted that although he had held down various jobs over the years, his addiction had ‘taken over’ his life for a year before his death.
Ms Hyland said that on December 28, 2022, Mr O’Neill left his home on foot and went across the road to the garage where he purchased wine. She said that he then started to make his way back home.
Ms Hyland said a male witness would give evidence to the effect that at 5.35pm he saw an Opel Astra stopped in the middle of the road with both front doors open and two men standing outside the car and a third man lying on the ground. She said: ‘[The witness] approached the scene. The two males standing there left the scene after a brief exchange with [the witness]. The man on the ground was bleeding and unconscious.’
A passing medical consultant went to the aid of Mr O’Neill and an ambulance arrived and transferred him to hospital. Ms Hyland said Mr O’Neill was placed on life support in hospital. He was also operated on without success and died without regaining consciousness on the January 8, 2023. Ms Hyland then gave an outline of what occurred in Glenwood that night.
She said: ‘Ricardo Hoey pushed Mr O’Neill, who fell to the ground. When Mr O’Neill was on the ground, Mr Deasy punched him a number of times. Mr Hoey kicked Mr O’Neill in the head.’
Ms Hyland also stated that jurors would hear that the blood of the victim was allegedly found on one of the socks of Mr Hoey.
She also said there would be evidence that within an hour of the incident, Hoey ‘came to the Garda station and subsequently Mr Deasy was brought
Addiction had ‘taken over’ life
‘He was acting as normal’
to the Garda station’.
The trial also heard evidence on the cause of death from Dr Margot Bolster, who carried out a postmortem on Mr O’Neill on January 9, 2023.
Dr Bolster said Mr O’Neill was diagnosed with a devastating brain injury, from which there was no possibility of recovery, on January 7, 2023.
She said that the postmortem examination revealed that Mr O’Neill sustained blunt force trauma to the head as a results of blows and a fall. He also had a traumatic axonal brain injury.
Dr Bolster discounted suggestions from the defence that an earlier assault on Mr O’Neill on December 24, involving youths, could have left him vulnerable to death.
She said that Mr O’Neill walked around for four days after the first incident and showed no sign of illness.
She remarked: ‘He was still conscious. He was acting as normal. A subdural haemorrhage normally manifests in 24 hours. He was walking around four days later.’
She said the second assault ‘resulted in his death’.