Man assaulted motorist who stopped for cattle crossing a road in Cork

A 51-year-old man got a two-month suspended jail sentence for assaulting a motorist who stopped for cattle crossing a road in Inniscarra. The accused complained about several parties including gardaí, a retired judge and the victim during the sentencing.

When Inspector Martin Canny said the victim had chosen not to make a victim impact statement, Hugh O’Brien – the man convicted of the assault – said he was the one who should have been asked for a victim impact statement.

He said that in an unrelated incident where he was assaulted by another person, knocked out and “lost a bucket of blood”, he was never given a chance to enter a victim impact statement.

Hugh O’Brien used the opportunity of his sentencing at Cork District Court to make complaints about several parties. He claimed that the victim in the present case was outside his - Hugh O’Brien’s – house the following day in August 2020 for half an hour “looking for a fight.” He accused the garda in this case of refusing to investigate a complaint he made about another matter.

He made the same complaint about a Garda Inspector, who was not present in court.

He claimed that a retired Circuit Court judge struck out an appeal against a past conviction against him (Hugh O’Brien) by not accepting a doctor’s note stating that he was sick and could not attend court for his appeal. He said the sick note should have been allowed.

Hugh O’Brien was told a number of times by Inspector Canny and by Judge Marian O’Brien that the sentencing hearing following his conviction for assault and causing criminal damage to a car was not the forum for making complaints about other people and unrelated matters.

Complaining about his former neighbour, the garda, the inspector and the retired judge, Hugh O’Brien referred to each of them by name, prefaced by the term, “This guy…”. He asked for recognisances to be set for an appeal of the present case where he was given the two-month suspended sentence for assault and a €300 fine for causing criminal damage to the victim’s car.

Earlier this month, the judge found Hugh O’Brien of Donoughmore, County Cork, guilty of assaulting a man at Curraleigh, Inniscarra, County Cork, on August 28 2020 and causing criminal damage to his car.

The injured party said he was driving home that evening when he stopped to let cattle pass and that he was approached and was struck with a stick through the open window of his car and that the car was struck with the stick. Criminal damage to the car was put at over €1,700.