Convicted killer and rapist jailed for hammer attack in Cork city 

Convicted killer and rapist, Ian Horgan, was jailed for eight and a half years for a hammer attack on a 29-year-old man and also assaulting the man’s 66-year-old mother, after which he sent a mocking video of the bloody aftermath with 'Lovely Day' playing in the background.

Detective Superintendent Michael Comyns described how Horgan, of no fixed address and formerly of The Hermitage, Macroom, Co Cork, left his home in Macroom that Saturday afternoon, got the bus to Cork city, walked to a derelict shed near the crime scene, changed his shoes and clothes and walked to the house where he carried out the attack.

The 29-year-old victim’s mother said Ian Horgan only left when she said that her son was dead.

Horgan then sent texts mocking the injured man to his partner, who had previously been in a relationship with the injured man, Hassan Baker.

Sitting in Fitzgerald Park, he also sent videos of the seriously injured man to his girlfriend and the contrasting scene in the park. He told her his knuckles were ‘f***ed’ again and that he was washing blood off himself, as the song ‘Lovely Day’ played.

Ian Horgan texted his girlfriend that afternoon, saying: “I destroyed him. He won’t be acting the hard man, let me tell you. He is a cheeky c***. LOL.” 

Det Supt Comyns said 39-year-old Horgan received a 12-year prison term at the Court of Criminal Appeal for the rape and manslaughter of Rachel Kiely in Ballincollig on October 26, 2000.

Hammer Attack

On Saturday afternoon, March 26, 2022, as he approached the victim’s home at MacCurtain Villas, off Bandon Road, neighbours were suspicious of him as it was a hot day and he was wearing a hood up and had a snood covering his face.

He knocked on the door, pushed past Mary O’Callaghan and ran at Hassan Baker, who tried to disarm him of the hammer. Horgan struck him with the claw of the hammer into the shoulder causing him to fall.

Det Supt Comyns said: “Ian Horgan grabbed him around the neck for 20 to 30 seconds, causing Mr Baker to collapse unconscious by the fireplace. He struck him on the left side of the head with the hammer, fracturing his skull and cheekbone. He was shouting in a Dublin accent pretending it was a drug debt.

“Mrs O’Callaghan intervened. He assaulted her with a hammer fracturing her right wrist.

“He video-recorded Hassan Baker and Mary O’Callaghan in extreme distress and in a disoriented state.

“Mr Horgan walked calmly out, returned to the shed and changed his clothing. He discarded the clothing and hammer within the shed and walked through the grounds of UCC to Fitzgerald Park.” 

There he shared videos of the crime scene with his then girlfriend, who was previously in a relationship with Mr Baker.

Horgan returned to Macroom that day but soon left the country with his girlfriend. They fell out, she returned to Cork and he followed, some four months after he had left the country. He was arrested and questioned and made no comment in the course of six interviews.

Before a trial could take place, Horgan did plead guilty to the count of assault causing serious harm to the victim and assault causing harm to the injured party’s mother.

Guilty Plea

Defence senior counsel, James O’Mahony, said Horgan spared the state a lengthy trial by pleading guilty, he wrote letters of apology to the two victims and he was trying to put his time in prison to good use.

Det Supt Comyns said his own opinion was the recent letters of apology to the victims were too little too late.

Judge Helen Boyle said the accused man also wrote a letter to her expressing his remorse. The judge said the premeditation was an aggravating factor as were the facts that he armed himself with a hammer and directed the blows to Mr Baker’s head causing fractures to his skull, jaw and orbital bone around his eye socket.

The judge said the injured man was left with significant physical difficulties, a stammer, headaches, nightmares, seizures and extensive scarring.

Hassan Baker said in his victim impact statement: “Ian Horgan entered our home with a hammer in his hand and he held me in an arm lock. When I fell to the ground, I was then beaten with a hammer using full force to the side of my head by Ian Horgan. He also caught me on the shoulder with the claw of the hammer. I was knocked to the ground with the impact and blood flowed massively from my head. I had tried to protect my mother while I struggled to defend myself but I was helpless. The blows of the hammer knocked me out completely. It was a nightmare scene.

“Since I was assaulted, I have felt devastated, scared and I live in a paranoid state, looking out the window and over my shoulder every single day. I am always on alert in case something sudden happens. I have constant nightmares and night terrors. I wake screaming in the night a lot.

“My life has changed dramatically. I worry about the long term effect this will have on me as my short term memory has not been the same since.

“I never even spoke to Ian Horgan before this and yet he came to our house with the intention of causing serious harm to me, equipped with a hammer. I don’t ever want to see him again.” 

Mary O’Callaghan, who is 66, said: “I was always very happy in this house until the man I now know to be Ian Horgan barged into my home at 2.30pm on March 26, 2022. He was swinging a hammer when he came in. I did not know this man. My son, Hassan, rushed to my aid and this man put him in an arm lock and started to pound him. There was blood everywhere.

“It was like being part of a horror movie but unfortunately it was real. He kept on pounding Hassan’s head with the hammer. At this stage Hassan was unconscious and I thought he was dead. I managed to get in between them and I shouted that he is dead.

“I didn’t realise at this stage but he had also broken my wrist with a blow of the hammer. After I said to him that Hassan was dead, he then left. I really felt my son Hassan was dead as the place was like a blood bath.

“What Ian Horgan did on that day will never leave my mind. I was never afraid in my home but since this serious assault I feel terrified, scared and physically it seems I can’t wake up from this nightmare.

“When I look at the marks on my son’s head, I can see the imprint of the hammer on the side of his skull. I know I am lucky he is alive.

“I would like to sincerely thank the gardaí for everything they have done for us, protecting us and keeping us informed.”

Speaking outside the court after today's sentencing, Ms O'Callaghan said: "I only hope he serves every day of the sentence he got for my son's sake. He is where he should be and he should never get out.

"He (Horgan) stood in that court and didn't have the guts to look at us.

"I'm just so glad he is locked up and I hope - if I had my way - he would never get out.

"(I am) just so happy he got what he deserved and that he is locked up and I got some justice for my son. My son never deserved what he did to him. He is an animal and if I had my way, he wouldn't see the light of day until he was an old man."