Aaron O'Neill given community service in lieu of two-year prison term

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Aaron O'Neill (20) was ordered to complete 200 hours’ community service in lieu of a two-year prison term. Judge Melanie Greally confirmed the order on 20 January 2016 after noting a favourable probation report. He was given one year to complete the work.

O'Neill and Colin Hammond (21) pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to making a false report. The offence occurred on 13 January 2015. Neither man had previous convictions. The proceedings were reported on 20 January 2016.

The report said O'Neill, a former Intel subcontractor, had been drinking and taking tablets with Hammond when he decided he did not want to work the next day. He paid Hammond to make a hoax bomb call from a payphone outside Hammond’s home.

Hammond told emergency services that bombs at Intel would explode in 12 hours and identified the caller as Islamic State. The calls closed a motorway, disrupted air traffic control and prevented 4,000 staff from attending work. Garda Eamonn McFadden estimated that Intel lost at least 6,000 hours of production.

Hammond received 200 hours’ community service in lieu of two years’ imprisonment in October. At a sentencing hearing the previous November, Judge Martin Nolan adjourned O'Neill’s case for a probation report. Paul Carroll, prosecuting, told Judge Greally that Judge Nolan had indicated the same sentence if the report was satisfactory.

Garda McFadden told Mr Carroll that O'Neill initially denied involvement but admitted after his arrest in March that the call was his idea. O'Neill said there had been no set plan, expressed regret and said he had not expected it to be a big deal. Garda McFadden agreed with James Dwyer, defending, that the decision was spontaneous and the only evidence against O'Neill was his own admissions.