Cork man admits manslaughter of 'kind and good-natured' pensioner after chance meeting in pub

A kind and good-natured 69-year-old man from West Cork got into conversation with a 28-year-old man in a Cork City pub and four hours later — without any signs of animosity building up between them — the elderly man was bleeding heavily on the ground being kicked in the head by the younger man.

On Wednesday at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork, Aaron Wolfe pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Florence (Florrie) O’Sullivan on March 11, 2023, at 15 Glentrasna Court, The Glen, Cork. He was originally charged with murder but Jane Hyland, prosecuting, said the DPP accepted the guilty plea to manslaughter.

The late Florrie O’Sullivan’s brother, Paddy O’Sullivan, said that the time between hearing of that assault on his brother and his death in hospital as a result of his injuries on April 6, 2023, was one of the hardest months of his life.

“He was a kind and good-natured person, never failing to help people in trouble. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of Florrie,” Paddy O’Sullivan said.

He said he had many happy memories of the family’s life in Adrigole but he offered one more recent memory of his late brother: “I crashed my car and I could not afford to replace it. Florrie said, ‘come up to the city and I’ll give you one’.

“Not alone does this affect families but it affects the whole community. 

I am here to get justice for my brother Florrie, I want closure. We are three years waiting for it. 

"It is a one-sided story — my brother is not here to defend himself. I swore on his soul I would get justice for him.” 

One of the reasons it has taken so long to advance was the delay in getting a psychiatric report on Wolfe. Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford said the 97-page report was very incisive and helpful. 

The judge adjourned sentencing until February 27 and directed the preparation of further reports on Wolfe from the prison governor and the probation service.

Case background

Sergeant Catriona Molloy outlined the background to the unlawful killing. Wolfe was drinking pints of lager alone in the Linenweavers pub on Paul Street, Cork, from after 3pm on Saturday afternoon, March 11, 2023. 

Florrie O’Sullivan went to the same pub after 4pm for a cup of coffee and started talking to Wolfe, who was 28 at the time.

About an hour later they both left and got a taxi together to Glentrasna in the Glen where Wolfe was living at the home of his grandmother, Eileen Karluk. They later went by taxi to Nutley Road in Mahon where Wolfe called to a relative.

It appeared that Mr O’Sullivan had left a bag at the house in Glentrasna and returned by taxi with Wolfe to retrieve it. They arrived back at 7.38pm. The taxi driver who dropped them said there was no sign of any animosity between them.

There was evidence of Wolfe drinking Jagermeister in the taxis, as well as some six pints of lager in the pub. By 8.15pm gardaí were receiving calls about a violent assault taking place outside the house at Glentrasna. 

One caller said: “There is a man thrown down on the ground covered in blood. There is a fella still kicking him on the ground. His name is Aaron.” 

Florence O’Sullivan died at Cork University Hospital on April 6, 2023, after being hospitalised following the March 11 incident. Margaret Bolster assistant state pathologist concluded that he died from traumatic brain injury due to blunt force trauma.

Defendant's remorse

Questioned after the March incident, Wolfe said the deceased was not leaving the house or was not leaving fast enough when asked to go. The accused said there was an altercation in the house but that he (Wolfe) had a blackout and could not remember what happened outside the house.

Brendan Grehan, defending, said there was no suggestion of any weapon being used, the parties did not know each other before this evening in March 2023 and nobody who saw them together described any animosity or raised voices or anything of that sort.

Mr Grehan said the accused instructed him to apologise and express his remorse to the O’Sullivan family, adding that he did not mean to kill him.

Mr Grehan said the accused had almost doubled in weight over the last three years in prison and now weighs 25 stone. He said there was no evidence of any psychiatric basis for a defence that could be put forward.

Wolfe has 78 previous convictions including one for engaging in violent disorder in 2020 and an assault causing harm in 2016.