Men face sentence over attack on mother and daughter

Two men are due for sentence on Friday after they were found guilty by a jury of assaulting a woman and her mother outside a Cork city pub over a year ago.

The jury of seven men and five women took just two and a half hours to find Michael Murphy (32) and Garrett Hill (33) each guilty of the two separate charges.

Murphy with an address at Woodfield Hall, Station Road, Blarney, Co Cork, had denied a charge of assault causing harm to Laura O’Callaghan outside the Soho bar in Cork city on February 16th, 2014.

Hill with an address at The View, Gleann Na Ri, Tower, Blarney, had denied a charge of assault causing harm to Breda O’Callaghan O’Connell, Ms O’Callaghan’s mother, inside Soho on the same date.

Det Garda Kevin McCarthy said it was clear to him from the CCTV footage from the scene that Hill assaulted Ms O’Callaghan O’Connell and that Murphy assaulted Laura O’Callaghan.

The jury which had also viewed the CCTV footage, came back on Thursday afternoon to find Murphy guilty of the assault on Ms O’Callaghan and Hill guilty of assaulting her mother.

During the trial which started on Tuesday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, the State withdrew charges that Murphy and Hill threw a petrol bomb at Ms O'Callaghan's house in Blarney.

The two had been charged that they intentionally or recklessly threw a lit petrol bomb into Ms O’Callaghan’s house at Woodfield Hall, Station Road in Blarney on February 17th, 2014.

Following the men's conviction, Judge Sean O Donnabhain told them their status had changed irrevocably and he remanded them in custody for sentence.

When a jury was being sworn in on Monday for the trial which began on Tuesday, Murphy stood up and addressed Judge O Donnabhain in the packed courtroom on Washington St.

“My Lord, could I address the court,” he asked. “I hope that when I am found not guilty, the people who made the allegations will be prosecuted for making false statements,” he said.