Convicted killer and rapist Ian Horgan has jail term for vicious hammer attack increased

Convicted rapist and killer Ian Horgan who recorded a mocking video to the tune of ‘Lovely Day’ after a vicious hammer attack on a 29-year-old man had his eight-and-a-half year prison sentence increased to eleven-and-a-quarter years on appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Mr Justice George Birmingham, president of the Court of Criminal Appeal, said in response to an appeal brought by the DPP on the basis of the sentence being unduly lenient that it should be increased.

Instead of nine years with the last six months suspended, the decision of the appeal court was to increase it to 11 years and three months with none of it suspended. 

Mr Justice Birmingham said that in light of the seriousness of the incident itself and the serious nature of Ian Horgan’s previous convictions, he saw no merit in suspending any portion of the sentence to encourage rehabilitation.

He said that the assault causing serious harm was offending of the most serious kind because of a number of factors including the degree of preparation and pre-planning involved whereby Horgan travelled from Macroom by bus to Cork city, bringing with him a change of clothes and a claw hammer to attack his victim. It was also extremely serious because of the fact that he forced his way into the constitutionally protected home of Mary O’Callaghan where he attacked her son, first choking him until he lapsed into unconsciousness and then attacking him with the hammer as he lay unconscious on the floor.

Donal O’Sullivan barrister for the DPP said it was only by the grace of God that this did not turn out to be a murder case. James O’Mahony senior counsel for the defence submitted that while it might be seen as lenient it was not unduly so.

Detective Superintendent Michael Comyns described at the original sentencing hearing how 40-year-old Ian 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 he thought 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’s 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, “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 Horgan got a 12-year prison term at the Court of Criminal Appeal for raping and killing a young woman in Ballincollig on October 26, 2000.

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’s Park.” 

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