Man falsely imprisoned his co-worker in Cork city 

A young woman was terrified after a work colleague offered her a spin home, but then drove at high speed in the wrong direction and refused to let her out of the car until she began to have a panic attack in front of him.

At Cork Circuit Criminal Court, 29-year-old Patrick O’Driscoll has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Judge Helen Boyle sentenced him to two and a half years with the last year suspended on charges including falsely imprisoning the woman in his car while driving across Cork City.

Judge Boyle said: “I have no doubt this was a terrifying experience for her, and one which has had an ongoing psychological impact.”

Detective Garda Eoghain O’Callaghan arrested O’Driscoll, of no fixed address. The charge related to November 11, 2021, in a car travelling between Rochestown Rd and the North Ring Rd, where the false imprisonment occurred.

Defence barrister, Paula McCarthy, said the accused had certain mental health issues and his criminal offending did not start until very recently, before which he had been a productive and hard-working member of society. She said he became unemployed during covid, reacted extremely badly to the isolation of the pandemic and resorted to drinking heavily.

Detective Garda Mark Durcan outlined the details. He said the woman and the defendant were briefly acquainted, and he offered to drive her from one part of the city to the bus station. However, that was not what happened, the detective said.

“He drove in the opposite direction,” said Det Garda Durcan. 

“He refused to let her out. He eventually left her out on the north side of the city after she had a panic attack.”

He was also sentenced in respect of a trespassing offence where he let himself into someone else’s house without permission and lay down on a bed. Det Garda Durcan said this offence occurred on September 9, 2022.

The detective said one of the homeowners had been socialising in the pub where the defendant had been earlier. She denied the defendant’s assertion that she had given him permission to go back to her house. Det Garda Durcan said the woman told gardaí that when she returned home the defendant was there before her in a bed.

Patrick O’Driscoll was charged with trespassing on that occasion.

Finally, in another incident he admitted trespassing at a room in the Maldron hotel in Cork on June 23 2022. On that occasion the defendant and a woman went into a room without permission. When the person staying in the room spoke to them they turned around and said they had come into the wrong room. It later transpired that some property was taken from the room.