Man jailed for life for manslaughter in Cork

A 40-year-old father of nine has been sentenced to life in prison after he pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court in Cork to the manslaughter of a homeless man in the city three years ago.

Christopher O’Sullivan, who was also homeless and originally from Co Kerry, had been celebrating his birthday and had taken a cocktail of cocaine, heroin, prescription drugs and alcohol when he carried out the attack on Timothy Hourihane.

The sentencing judge, Mr Justice Paul McDermott, said the attack was one of the worst of its kind.

He said that fact, coupled with O’Sullivan’s 48 previous convictions for serious offences and the escalating nature of his offending, meant a life sentence was merited.

Mr Hourihane was a father, a son and a brother from Sheep’s Head in west Cork.

During his time as a chef in the UK, he had cooked at private parties for Elton John and Lionel Richie.

But after his return to Cork and the death of his partner, he turned to alcohol and became homeless.

On 13 October 2019, gardaí were called to a green area just off Mardyke Walk near Cork city centre, where a group of homeless people were living in tents.

Mr Hourihane was one of them. He was, effectively, beaten to death.

The attack, which was described as severe and vicious, started when Mr Hourihane, who was gay, was being teased about his sexuality.

Last April, 29-year-old James Brady of Shannon Lawn, Mayfield in Cork, was jailed for 11 years after a jury found him not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.

The scene of the attack at Mardyke Walk near Cork city centre

Today, O’Sullivan, who was also homeless, was jailed for life after he pleaded guilty to his role in killing Mr Hourihane.

Mr Justice McDermott said O’Sullivan’s more serious previous convictions and his greater role in the attack merited a difference between the sentences of the two men who were charged in relation to the attack.

Lead investigator Detective Superintendent Michael Comyns told the court that Mr Hourihane had been kicked, beaten and stamped, and when Brady stopped, O’Sullivan kept going.

Prosecuting Senior Counsel Siobhán Lankford said it was the view of the DPP that the killing fell into the highest category of manslaughter.


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In victim impact statements read to the court, Mr Hourihane’s son Eliot said he and his family would never be able to move on from his father’s death, while his brother Denis and other family members said their lives were changed instantly and irrevocably.

They said they hoped O’Sullivan’s sentence would reflect the brutality of the attack.

In sentencing, Mr Justice McDermott said that O’Sullivan and Brady had carried out a “shocking, unrelenting and savage assault on a helpless man who lay prone on the ground”.

He said they had attacked Mr Hourihane in a merciless and brutal manner, in which they used their shoes and feet as lethal weapons.

The judge said it was appropriate to hand down a longer sentence to O’Sullivan to the one given to Brady because he had continued the attack after Brady stopped.

In addition, his previous convictions, which included serious assaults, were also far worse than Brady’s, and the nature of the offending was escalating.

Mr Justice McDermott backdated the life sentence to December, 2021, when O’Sullivan indicated he would plead guilty to a manslaughter charge.



Man jailed for life for manslaughter in Cork
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