Damien Fitzgerald and Bill O'Driscoll have serious-harm convictions upheld

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

Damien Fitzgerald and Bill O'Driscoll had their convictions for causing serious harm upheld by the Court of Appeal on 28 July 2017. The court allowed their appeals against their robbery convictions.

A jury convicted both men on 1 May 2015 of causing serious harm to Karol O'Keeffe and robbing his mobile phone, worth approximately €50. The offences occurred on 25 November 2013, when Mr O'Keeffe was assaulted on the Quarry Steps in Cork while walking home from a pub.

On 1 May 2015, both men were sentenced to eight years' imprisonment on each count, with the sentences to run concurrently from 22 February 2015. They appealed against both conviction and sentence, but the judgment dealt only with their conviction appeals.

Delivering the judgment, Mr Justice Edwards said the trial judge had erred in law by ruling that the jury could not be instructed about alternative verdicts of handling or possessing stolen property on the robbery charges. The court was to hear submissions on whether to order retrials on those counts.

O'Driscoll also argued that the trial judge had failed to address a possible innocent explanation for the victim's blood on his clothes. The appeal court was satisfied that the defence case had been fairly and accurately summarised for the jury.