"I have been attacked three times ... You wake up at four and you are hypothermic and shaking with the cold." - Timmy Hourihane, speaking to Red FM in 2018.
Timmy Hourihane was beaten so badly that when his family were brought to the morgue at Cork University Hospital to identify his body he was "almost unrecognisable" to them.
The sentence was a reflection of the ferocity of the attack, as well as a reflection of the volume, seriousness and escalating nature of Christopher O'Sullivan's previous offences and, finally, his risk of re-offending in the future.
O'Sullivan, who is originally from Co Kerry, had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Timothy "Timmy" Hourihane on 13 October 2019 in a field off Mardyke Walk, close to Cork city centre.
A number of homeless people had pitched tents in the field and had been living there for several months.
The Central Criminal Court, sitting in Cork, heard that Timmy Hourihane suffered severe facial trauma, brain swelling, broken facial bones and shattering of his teeth in the attack.
O’Sullivan carried out the attack with an accomplice, James Brady. Brady of Shannon Lawn, Mayfield in Cork was jailed last April for 11 years in relation to the incident.
The lead investigator in the case, Det Supt Michael Comyns, said that the beating on a grass verge was so severe that one of Timmy Hourihane's teeth was found in his stomach at his post-mortem examination.
Mr Hourihane, who was a gifted chef, died of inhalation of blood and cardiac arrest. The father of one also suffered a collapsed lung and severe facial and head trauma arising out of the unprovoked attack.
The attack on the 53-year-old, who was originally from Kilcrohane in the Sheep's Head peninsula in West Cork, occurred near his tent in the field.
Members of the public went to the assistance of Mr Hourihane after he had been beaten. However, he died a short time later at Cork University Hospital.
O’Sullivan was originally due to stand trial for murder. However, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter last year, after he was informed that such a plea was acceptable to the State.
Det Supt Comyns told the hearing that Mr Hourihane, O’Sullivan and Brady were living in a makeshift community of homeless people in the Mardyke near University College Cork in October, 2019.
The court heard that the atmosphere was strained among members of the homeless community who were living in close proximity to each other in tents.
Det Supt Comyns said that O’Sullivan had spent the majority of 12 October 2019 drinking. He had celebrated his 37th birthday that day, and had taken a cocktail of cocaine, heroin, prescription drugs and alcohol when he carried out the attack on Mr Hourihane.
Mr Hourihane left the tented village at 10.58pm and returned alone at 12.22am. O'Sullivan had also left the area and came back just a minute before Mr Hourihane, according to CCTV footage gathered locally by gardaí as part of their investigation. He was in the company of his now former partner. Brady was also there.
Witnesses who were going to a house in the area later reported that Mr Hourihane was "set upon" by a man later identified as Brady, who was finger-pointing, shouting and pushing.
Det Supt Comyns told the court that O’Sullivan was being held back by his then partner. However, O’Sullivan broke free from the grip of the woman. Mr Hourihane was subsequently "severely assaulted" by both men.
Det Supt Comyns said that the men were kicking and stamping on Mr Hourihane until he fell to the ground.
He said witnesses later informed gardaí that O’Sullivan continued to assault Mr Hourihane, even after Brady had stopped.
When O'Sullivan finally stopped attacking Mr Hourihane, he set fire to the tent that his victim had been sleeping in at night. He also threw the top he had been wearing into the fire.
Dt Supt Comyns also said that O’Sullivan disposed of his other clothes in a fire at the back of the tented village.
Following the death of Mr Hourihane, gardaí deemed the tented village a crime scene and the occupants were moved out and accommodated by the Simon Community.
O’Sullivan gave a witness statement to gardaí in which he claimed that he had been asleep in his tent on the night of the attack and only woke when gardaí arrived at the scene.
Det Supt Comyns told Mr Justice Paul McDermott that the attack only lasted three to five minutes. However, its impact was "devastating", he said.
O’Sullivan has 48 previous convictions for extremely serious and violent crimes, including assault causing serious harm, robbery, burglary, criminal damage, drugs offences and possession of knives.
Det Supt Comyns said a man spent two months in a coma in 2007 and "never really recovered" after being assaulted by O’Sullivan. The father of nine was jailed for six years in relation to this offence.
Det Supt Comyns said that this incident was similar to the assault on Mr Hourihane.
"Following that assault (in 2007) he (O’Sullivan) asked other people to take the injured party out of the building (where the attack occurred) and to leave him lying on the roadside."
A victim impact statement from Eliot Hourihane, the only son of Timmy Hourihane, was read in court.
Eliot Hourihane said he could not begin to explain how angry and sad the violent passing of his father had made him.
"You don’t get those kinds of injuries my Dad sustained if they weren’t trying to end his life," he said in the statement.
"I pray that the person involved is dealt with severely as he has left a son without a father, a mother without a son and siblings without their brother. As an only child, I feel like I need to fight for him (Timmy Hourihane) until the end.
"It won’t bring him back but hopefully with the help of the court we can get some form of justice for him. My family will never be able to move on. But these two people (the persons responsible for the manslaughter of Mr Hourihane) will move on like he was nothing."
A victim impact statement from the family of the deceased was also read into the record.
Mr Hourihane’s brother, his sister-in-law and another relative were present in court for the sentencing hearing. Eliot Hourihane lives abroad.
In their statement, the family said that their lives had changed instantly and irrevocably when Mr Hourihane was attacked. "He was left for dead" by two violent people in a "unprovoked’ and "brutal attack", they said.
"With a history of brutal and violent behaviour, the defendant (Christopher O'Sullivan) knew well what he was doing and what the outcome would be and he still didn’t care," the statement said.
"He had the presence of mind to burn his bloody clothes in a nearby fire hoping he’d get away with it, while Timothy lay dying.
"We cannot understand how a human being could do this. For us it is a life sentence."
Prosecution counsel Siobhan Lankford said that it was the view of the Director of Public Prosecutions that the crime fell into the highest category of manslaughter.
Defending Senior Counsel Roisin Lacey said her client wanted to offer his sincere apology to the family of Mr Hourihane for his role in the death of their loved one.
"He wants to offer the sincerest and deepest apology to the Hourihane family for his participation in and contribution to the death of Mr Hourihane. He has by his plea of guilty accepted his guilt," she said.
Ms Lacey said that O’Sullivan had told a consultant during an assessment that he deserved to be punished for what he did to Mr Hourihane. He said "Timmy ended up dead" and "they (he and Brady) caused it."
Ms Lacey said that her client had indicated that he was under the influence of a variety of drugs and alcohol when he carried out the beating. These included cocaine, heroin, cannabis, Xanax, lager and spirits.
In sentencing, Mr Justice McDermott said that O'Sullivan and Brady had carried out a "shocking, unrelenting and savage assault on a helpless man who lay prone on the ground".
He said they had attacked Mr Hourihane in a merciless and brutal manner, in which they used their shoes and feet as lethal weapons.
He said it was appropriate to hand down a longer sentence to O’Sullivan to the one given to Brady, because he had continued the attack after Brady stopped.
His previous convictions, which included serious assaults, were also far worse than Brady's.
"He (O’Sulllivan) has an awful history of offences against the person. In the 2007 attack, the accused inflicted catastrophic injuries on a man.
"This (the death of Hourihane) was the worst kind of killing. It ranks as one of those offences just short of murder."
Mr Justice McDermott said that O’Sullivan had a childhood that made for harrowing reading. However, he has yet to address his "deep-rooted issues", he said.
He said that O’Sullivan had a long history of offending which included "egregious offences against the person".
Mr Justice McDermott said that a life imprisonment was an "appropriate sentence" for a person who had such a serious track record of offending.
"Unless his issues are addressed, he will have a high risk of re-offending. This was wanton violence," he said.
Mr Justice McDermott backdated the life sentence to December, 2021, when O'Sullivan indicated he would plead guilty to a manslaughter charge.
In April of last year, Brady of Shannon Lawn in Mayfield, Cork, was jailed for 11 years for the manslaughter of Mr Hourihane.
Following a four-week trial, which was heard at a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Waterford, the jury found Brady not guilty of murder, but guilty of the manslaughter of Mr Hourihane.
During the course of his employment, Mr Hourihane cooked for both Elton John and Lionel Richie.
On Christmas Day, 2017, Timmy Hourihane gave an interview to the Irish Times while he was in eating his Christmas dinner at Penny Dinners in Cork City.
He said he had a feeling of immense gratitude for the blessings of the day. He spoke of his delight in simple pleasures, such as going to mass.
He said it was important to try to acquire a black sense of humour whilst living on the streets.
"I feel cold and not safe" - Timmy Hourihane
Mr Hourihane mentioned his sadness at the death of homeless woman Kathleen O'Sullivan (43), who had passed away on the streets of Cork just weeks earlier.
"Homelessness is out of control. I knew Kathleen O’Sullivan. She had a good heart for me," he said.
"When you sleep on the streets you are lucky to wake up with your trainers still on. It has happened to me where I have woken up with one trainer missing. You have to laugh cos you think: 'why didn’t they take the two'?"
Mr Hourihane said that he had been given the opportunity to attend rehab on a few occasions and did well for a period before relapsing.
He added that he had always received support from his loved ones and friends, but that he found himself unable to conquer his addiction to alcohol.
Mr Hourihane also spoke to the Neil Prendeville Show on Cork's Red FM in the winter of 2018.
He told the radio station that he had been assaulted a number of times on the streets.
"I have been attacked three times," he said. "The last attack happened two weeks ago. I didn’t have a cent in my pocket and they probably thought I had something. (At night) I feel cold and not safe.
"It is really cold. We are a city on stone basically. We might have a duvet or a few blankets. You wake up at four and you are hypothermic and shaking with the cold.
"My day involves wandering around the whole city thinking 'where will I sleep tonight? Is it going to be safe?’ In most places in Cork it is not safe."
