Gun siege man’s supervision
A 37-year-old man who fired shots at gardaí during a 13-hour siege at his parents’ home in 2013 was unwilling to cooperate with the mental health services.
Michael O’Connor, formerly of Nolomar, Strandhill Road was before Sligo Circuit Criminal Court on a re-entry of his case after it was found he was not engaging fully with the Probation Services.
Judge Francis Comerford also noted that from a November 2019 psychological report that the defendant presented as a risk of re-offending.
O’Connor was jailed for seven and a half years with the final 18 months suspended in November 2014, for a period of 5 years.
He had pleaded guilty to three charges – possession of a firearm with intent to cause death or serious injury, reckless discharge of a firearm and damage to a Garda car at the family home.
The incident took place in the early hours of December 28th 2013 resulting in a siege situation which involved 110 gardaí and 15 nearby houses being evacuated.
O’Connor fired a total of 23 shots from a single barrell shotgun, 19 inside the house, four outside including at Gardaí and an unmarked patrol car.
Soon after the incidednt began, armed Gardai arrived but they had to also take cover when O’Connor emerged carrying the shotgun. He took aim and fired at the patrol car in the driveway, causing €1,700 worth of damage.
At one point when O’Connor came around the side of the house there was an exchange of gun fire with an armed Garda who had a MP7 machine gun. One live round was fired by the garda when O’Connor also discharged his shotgun.
The stand-off ended when O’Connor emerged from the rear of his parents’ house but he had no explanation for his behaviour.
He later described to a clinical psychologist the excitement he felt at seeing the destruction caused by the discharge of the shotgun.
O’Connor ignored repeated requests over the following 13 hours to drop the gun even when told there were armed Gardai present.
Last week’s sitting of the Circuit Court was told O’Connor was out of prison two years and had not come to the attention of gardaí. Defence barrister, Ms Eileen O’Leary, SC, defending with Mr Peter Daly BL and Mr Mark Mullaney, Solicitor, told the court since the re-entry O’Connor had cooperated fully with the Probation Service and a report before the court was ‘quite positive’. O’Connor had also been engaging with his GP.
The court was made aware of two outstanding issues in relation to O’Connor, namely the lack of urine analysis and the reluctance to engage with mental health professionals.
Mr Pat Reynolds, BL, representing the DPP said O’Connor engages with everyone but mental health professionals and said it was not the court’s role to continually supervise a person and Judge Francis Comerford replied, “The role of the court was to protect the public.”
Mr Reynolds said there had been a breach of bail in that he was not engaging, but that had changed and said O’Connor was prone to psychotic episodes.
Ms O’Leary said her client felt he was doing well and does not feel he needs help from mental health services. He had an appointment with services in April this year and was discharged, the court was told. Ms O’Leary said her client had done a course in gardening, was currently living in hostel accommodation and long term accommodation was being looked at.
Social worker Helena Morrin told the court O’Connor was cooperating with the Probation Services and the hope would be that he would engage with mental health services going forward.
She said he was unwilling to cooperate with mental health services and does not want to address his mental health.
Ms Morrin said O’Connor’s GP felt he could be treated in the community and said he would keep an eye on his mental health if he did attend.
Judge Francis Comerford said there will be difficulties with O’Connor transitioning into independent living and asked if the Probation Service could monitor his attendance at his GP and liaise in relation to finding accommodation.
Ms Morrin said there was difficulties in getting single occupancy accommodation in Sligo town and instead O’Connor was now agreeing to look further afield in rural towns. Ms O’Leary said her client agreed to being supervised by the Probation Service for a further year.
Judge Comerford said if O’Connor notifies the Probation Service of a change of address and engages with them between now and a further sitting in 2021, he would strike out the application to re-enter matters.