Intruder who carried out unprovoked assault on vulnerable teen at Cork home is jailed

AN INTRUDER at the Bandon home of “a lovely family”, with whom he had no connection, carried out a totally unprovoked assault on a vulnerable teenager, a court has heard.

The intruder has now been jailed for three years.

Judge Helen Boyle imposed a sentence of four years with the last year suspended on Joseph Kelly, of Lower Ardan, Bandon, Co Cork.

Kelly pleaded guilty to the charge of assault causing harm to the 18-year-old, along with causing criminal damage to the house.

Sergeant Kevin Heffernan said the intruder had been drinking all of the previous night and also took a gram of cocaine, did not sleep, and resumed drinking from 12pm until 4.30 pm on the day of the violent attack on August 27, 2023.

Defence barrister Caroline O’Connell said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court previously that Kelly literally did not know where he was, due to his level of intoxication.

Ms O’Connell added that when he was put out of the house, the intruder phoned the gardaí himself and waited outside to be arrested.

Sgt Heffernan confirmed this, adding that others also phoned the gardaí.

Victim impact statement 

The victim’s mother said in a victim impact statement that her son is on the autism spectrum.

She added that this attack had set back an awful lot of progress the teenager had made over the years.

She said her son’s younger sister showed great heroism that day, phoning her mother and the gardaí for help — which resulted in a neighbour running to the scene and intervening.

The victim’s mother is left contemplating that she could have been left “without my beautiful son”, but for her neighbour’s timely intervention.

Sgt Heffernan said the woman who made the victim impact statement had gone for a walk with the family dog at around 6pm on that sunny Sunday afternoon, leaving her 18-year-old son and his sister for the few m

inutes of the walk.

Letter of apology 

When Kelly entered their family home, he did not know them and the damage he caused, and the attack he carried out on the teenager was unprovoked.

As well as two black eyes, cuts, bruises and a broken arm, the teenage victim suffered very badly in psychological terms — losing confidence in staying at home alone, becoming hyper-vigilant about home security, and suffering nightmares and flashbacks to the incident, the court heard.

Ms O’Connell BL said the intruder’s family raised €2,000 in compensation, which was handed over.

She said Kelly expressed remorse and had written a letter of apology as well as signing a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity.

Quoting from the record of his interview with gardaí, Kelly said: “I don’t know why I was in the house.

“Poor man. Lovely family.”