Teen ‘threatened students’ at Cameron murder house
Jail for youth who brandished knife at party where 20-yr-old was killed
A TEENAGER who brandished a knife outside a house party where student Cameron Blair was murdered has been jailed for two years.
Sentencing Scott O’connor, 19, at the Central Criminal Court today, Mr Justice David Keane said the defendant had “deliberately armed” himself and threatened others with a knife but had not used the weapon.
The judge noted the act occurred on a public street and O’connor had engaged in the confrontation for five minutes, adding that “at all times it was open to him to walk away”.
He said the actions by the defendant were “entirely unprovoked” and directed towards people who had shown him and his two companions “hospitality” during the evening.
Mr Justice Keane added: “The purpose was to threaten and intimidate students at the house”, although he accepted there was no intention on O’connor’s part to kill anyone or cause serious harm.
The judge said the circumstances of the violent disorder could not be dealt with “in a vacuum” due to the terrible tragedy that ultimately occurred.
He added: “There can be no doubt that his actions contributed significantly to the febrile atmosphere in which the murder of Cameron had occurred.”
KINDNESS
He described Cameron as courteous and conciliatory and someone who had shown the three teenagers nothing but kindness and hospitality.
Referring to “the utter senselessness” of the incident and the “indescribable tragedy” of the death, the judge extended condolences to his family and friends on “the tragic and irreplaceable loss of a fine young man”.
The 20-year-old student’s parents Kathy and Noel Blair and younger brother Alan were supported in the courtroom yesterday by family members.
O’connor, of Churchfield Square in Churchfield, Cork, pleaded guilty last January to committing violent disorder at Bandon Road on January 16, 2020.
He has also pleaded guilty to producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury in the course of a dispute, namely a knife, in a manner likely to intimidate another person.
The court heard during last month’s sentence hearing the accused had pulled up his top, revealing his waistband, when his 14-year-old friend told him: “Give it to me, I’ll shank one of them.”
Evidence was also given that the defendant told gardai he had earlier picked up the knife from the kitchen floor of the house “to scare” the others at the party but said he had no intention of using it.
Give it to me
... I’ll shank one of them O’CONNOR’S FRIEND WHO KILLED STUDENT