Courts / Cork / Report

Teen 'clearly threatening' violence at Cameron Blair murder scene, defence accepts

Date
2021-07-05

Stage
Sentence

Primary locality
Cork City

County
Cork

Summary

In a Cork city house party where 20‑year‑old Cameron Blair was murdered, 19‑year‑old Scott O'Connor was found to have brandished a knife. O'Connor's defence counsel told the Central Criminal Court that his client had "minimised" his behaviour and now accepts the facts as presented by the prosecution. He had held the knife above his head and pointed it at party‑goers, and had also pulled up his top to reveal his waistband when a 14‑year‑old friend urged him to "shank one of them." O'Connor had earlier claimed he had taken the knife from the kitchen floor to scare others but denied any intention to use it. He had pleaded guilty to violent disorder and to producing a knife capable of serious injury. The judge adjourned sentencing to July 12, noting a conflict on the facts that the court would resolve. The case remains at the sentencing stage.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Teen 'clearly threatening' violence at Cameron Blair murder scene, defence accepts. Charges or matters: producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury in the course of a dispute, to wit a knife, in a manner likely unlawfully to intimidate another person on the same occasion; his murder. Procedural stage: sentence

When:

January 16, 2020 Hearing Or Sentence
April 2020 Hearing Or Sentence
October 2017 Incident
July 12 Adjournment
2021-07-05 Publication

Why: The boy, who could not be named because he was a minor, pleaded guilty to murdering Cameron on Bandon Road in Co Cork on January 16, 2020. CNI source report

Case subjects

Unnamed 19-year-old

Accused

Charges: producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury in the course of a dispute, to wit a knife, in a manner likely unlawfully to intimidate another person on the same occasion; his murder (Admitted)

Plea: Guilty

Outcome: The barrister said his client must be sentenced in that he had "done more than show a knife" on the evening of the incident and "there was a brandishing".; The judge adjourned the sentencing of Scott O'Connor today after hearing that the accused now accepts he had "minimised" his behaviour on the night and that there was no longer a conflict on the facts in the case.