Cork man ‘lost it’ in row over dog, smashing €59k car with metal bar

A 41-year-old man used a scaffold bar to cause extensive damage to his neighbours’ €59,000 Hyundai car when he just “lost it” in a row about their two rottweiler dogs.

Eoin Mulcahy was sentenced by Judge Sinead Behan at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to one year suspended for causing the criminal damage.

The accused man pleaded guilty to damaging the car on October 22, 2023, and producing the scaffold bar in the course of a dispute.

The owners of the car heard banging outside their home and CCTV showed Mulcahy arriving outside their home with the metal bar. He smashed the bonnet, wing mirrors, and a number of windows in the car.

Mulcahy, who was living at Chestnut Mews, Cluain Ard, Cobh, Co Cork, at the time of the criminal damage was having a dispute with the owners of the car in relation to their two rottweiler dogs, where it was his view that they were not always under control.

Because the electric car was seriously damaged by rain following the attack, it was so seriously water-damaged that it had to be written off, Judge Behan was told.

Defence barrister Mahon Corkery said: “He was forthcoming, honest, and expressed remorse from the outset. He wrote a letter of apology and made admissions to gardaí. Since this, the defendant and his family have moved out of the area, and in fact out of the county.”

Judge Behan said the defendant handled a dispute in an extremely poor manner, arming himself with a dangerous weapon to carry out the damage. The judge noted that although he has moved away, his former neighbours remain in fear that he might possibly return.

In mitigation, the judge noted that he had gone through addiction treatment and gathered €5,000 as a gesture of his remorse as well as leaving the area.