Three men have been jailed for 18 months after they were convicted of assaulting another man with an air hose in what was described as "a workplace prank that went seriously wrong". Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard that the victim of the assault suffered serious internal bleeding and nearly died.
On 5 August 1999, 19-year old Bernard O'Donovan was at work at Grainger’s Sawmills at Enniskeane in West Cork. There was a breakdown at the mills, during which Bernard O'Donovan was seriously assaulted. Eighteen-year old Rohan Mukerjee from School Line, Ballineen, in West Cork took an air hose used for blowing dust and timber shavings from the machinery. Twenty-year old Declan O'Connell also from School Line, Ballineen, took hold of Bernard O'Donovan and 23-year old Colm O'Driscoll from Riverview Drive, Ballineen, blocked O'Donovan's escape while Mukerjee assaulted him with the air hose. Bernard O'Donovan suffered serious internal injuries and collapsed. He crawled outside and collapsed again underneath some trees where he remained for two-and-a-half hours. At this stage, he was seriously ill and bleeding. He was subsequently rushed to hospital.
Detective Sergeant Gerry McCarthy said that Bernard O'Donovan has since made a good recovery physically, but the incident still affects him and he gets upset. All three defendants pleaded guilty to the assault charge and apologised to Bernard O'Donovan in court today. However, Judge Patrick Moran rejected pleas from their counsel to deal with the matter in a non-custodial way. Judge Moran said that Bernard O'Donovan had suffered serious life-threatening injuries as a result of an appalling assault and he jailed the three defendants for 18 months.
