Killers of young man in Carrigaline at Christmas 2022 jailed for four years

The killers of a young man in Carrigaline at Christmas 2022 were jailed today for four years.

Ricardo Hoey of 7 Ardcarrig, Carrigaline, County Cork, and Jordan Deasy of 41 Ravensdale, Heron's Wood, were both sentenced to seven years with the last three years of that sentence suspended.

Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford said at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork today that as a child the deceased man, Matt O’Neill, could swim before he could walk and went on to save lives in sea rescues, not least once when he was only 13 years old saving three people, and that following his killing his family made the decision to have his organs donated, thus saving three further lives following his own death.

The judge said in relation to the two men being sentenced for his manslaughter:

 “Aggravating factors included the fact that Matt O’Neill was entirely defenceless, they had an opportunity to retreat and did not take it and the violence they used was entirely unnecessary and gratuitous.” 

Mitigating factors considered by Mr Justice Lankford were the fact that both accused were teenagers at the time of the manslaughter, the assault was brief, they did not set out with the intention to carry out this crime and no weapon was involved.

Guilty of manslaughter 

21-year-old Ricardo Hoey and 20-year-old Jordan Deasy both pleaded not guilty to the single charge against them, namely that on December 28 2022 at Glenwood estate, Carrigaline, County Cork, they did murder 29-year-old Matt O’Neill, contrary to common law. 

But, on May 16, a jury of six men and six women found after deliberations that were spread across ten days that both men were not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of 29-year-old Matt O’Neill in Carrigaline on December 28 2022. It was a majority 10-2 verdict against Mr Hoey and an 11-1 majority verdict of the same kind against Jordan Deasy.

The family of the Carrigaline manslaughter victim are haunted by the loneliness and fear he must have felt after being attacked near his home and they are heartbroken at how he struggled to survive after the life support machine was turned off – living on for 29 minutes – one minute for each year of his life.

Parents, Pat and Eileen O’Neill were present again today in the Central Criminal Court in Cork as they were for the trial after which Pat O’Neill delivered their highly personal evidence on the impact of “a mindless, senseless cowardly act” that had robbed them of their only child.

The victim’s father, Pat O’Neill said his late son had been a gifted swimmer and had been involved in a sea rescue at the age of 13 in Kerry where he saved one person’s life and now had saved three more lives with the donation of his organs which had been successfully transplanted to recipients.

Background 

Detective Garda Bríd Norris summarised the background to the killing of Matt O’Neill as he was walking home at 5.39 pm that day - in an incident that ended a minute later. He was carrying a bottle of wine he had purchased in the local petrol station store. The victim was intoxicated and Ricardo Hoey, who was driving his Opel Corsa, shouted at him to move out of the way a number of times and sounded the car horn before getting out and pushing him in the face and chest causing him to fall to a seated position. 

Jordan Deasy then punched him twice – the first punch connecting well, the second not connecting properly. Ricarda Hoey then kicked him in the head when he was lying back on his elbows. He was unconscious following the kick to the head.

The detective said that when a man approached and asked what happened, Ricardo Hoey said the man on ground would not get out of the way of the car. As soon as gardaí were called, the two defendants left the scene. A doctor passing by offered assistance before paramedics arrived and the victim was taken to Cork University Hospital where he died on January 8 2023.

Ricardo Hoey and his mother Leona Hoey called to gardaí, and the defendant made admissions about his involvement in an assault within less than an hour of it occurring. 

Jordan Deasy went into hiding and was found in Crosshaven on December 31 2022 and when interviewed he also made admissions about his involvement in the assault.

Det. Garda Norris said that one piece of CCTV from the area at the relevant time was particularly significant, showing that Matt O’Neill was pushed to the ground by Ricardo Hoey and that any further punches or kicks occurred when he was on the ground. 

When Jordan Deasy was interviewed he accepted that the late Mr O’Neill was defenceless and that the assault was unnecessary, cowardly and unfair and that Mr O’Neill was not a threat to them on the ground.

Mr Hoey had no previous convictions. Jordan Deasy had 11, including one for assault causing harm which occurred in December 2021. At the time of the attack on Matt O’Neill on December 28 2022, Mr Hoey was 20 and is now 21, Mr Deasy was 18 and is now 20.

Tom Creed senior counsel for Mr Hoey said, “I have to accept the violence was gratuitous and the victim was defenceless. It was not planned, this is something that happened over a very brief period.” 

Brendan Grehan said that for a young person “the enormous burden that one has taken a life” could be difficult to accept. 

"For Mr Deasy, this would have been a very sobering experience having been on a feckless course in his life… There was no intention to kill or cause serious injury,” he said.

Mr Grehan and Mr Creed both stressed that the two accused had offered pleas of guilty to manslaughter before the trial but this was not accepted by the DPP.