The Court of Appeal has reduced the effective prison terms imposed on Adam Heneghan and Colin O’Sullivan for two violent attacks on women in Cork in December 2011.
The first victim, a Polish hotel worker, was walking towards Cork city centre at about 2.30am when she encountered the two men near a hospital. She was struck on the head with a bottle. CCTV captured the incident and a hospital security guard became aware of what had happened, prompting the men to flee.
Shortly afterwards they encountered a second woman who was walking home after socialising. The court said the men pretended to be more intoxicated than they actually were, indicating a degree of planning.
After initially consensual contact with O’Sullivan, the woman was steered into church grounds. She was struck with a bottle, pushed face-down and held by Heneghan while O’Sullivan committed a sexual assault without penetration. The incident stopped when she tried to contact Gardaí. About €50 was then taken from her handbag.
The Cork Circuit Court imposed consecutive sentences. Heneghan received three years for assault and six years for sexual assault, with one year suspended. O’Sullivan received four years for assault and six years for sexual assault, again with one year suspended.
The Court of Appeal held that consecutive sentences were justified because the attacks involved separate victims and distinct offences, despite occurring close together in time.
However, it found that insufficient weight had been given to mitigation. Both men were teenagers at the time and had no previous convictions. Heneghan had entered an early guilty plea. O’Sullivan had learning and developmental difficulties and eventually pleaded guilty before the second victim was cross-examined.
The court therefore left the original headline terms intact but increased the suspended portions. Heneghan’s nine-year total was reduced to five years actual custody with four years suspended. O’Sullivan’s ten-year total was reduced to six and a half years actual custody with three and a half years suspended.