'There will never again be Christmas in our home': Matt O'Neill's father on heartbreak at loss of only child
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The family of the Carrigaline manslaughter victim are haunted by the loneliness and fear he must have felt after being attacked near his home and they are heartbroken at how he struggled to survive after the life support machine was turned off — living on for 29 minutes — one minute for each year of his life.
Parents Pat and Eileen O’Neill were at the Central Criminal Court in Cork as Pat O’Neill delivered their highly personal evidence on the impact of “a mindless, senseless cowardly act” that had robbed them of their only child.
21-year-old Ricardo Hoey, of 7 Ardcarrig, Carrigaline, Co Cork, and 19-year-old Jordan Deasy, of 41 Ravensdale, Heron's Wood, both pleaded not guilty to the single charge against them, namely that on December 28, 2022, at Glenwood estate, Carrigaline, Cou Cork, they did murder 29-year-old Matt O’Neill, contrary to common law.
Last month, a jury of six men and six women found after deliberations that were spread across 10 days that both men were not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of 29-year-old Matt O’Neill in Carriglaine on December 28, 2022.
It was a majority 10-2 verdict against Mr Hoey and an 11-1 majority verdict of the same kind against Jordan Deasy.
The victim’s father, Pat O’Neill, said his late son had been a gifted swimmer and had been involved in a sea rescue at the age of 13 in Kerry, where he saved one person’s life and now had saved three more lives with the donation of his organs, which had been successfully transplanted to recipients.
Detective Garda Bríd Norris summarised the background to the killing of Matt O’Neill as he was walking home at 5.39pm that day — in an incident that ended a minute later. He was carrying a bottle of wine he had purchased in the local petrol station store.
The victim was intoxicated and Ricardo Hoey, who was driving his Opel Corsa, shouted at him to move out of the way a number of times and sounded the car horn before getting out and pushing him in the face and chest, causing him to fall to a seated position. Jordan Deasy then punched him twice — the first punch connecting well, the second not connecting properly.
Ricardo Hoey then kicked him in the head when he was lying back on his elbows. He was unconscious following the kick to the head.
The detective said when a man approached and asked what happened, Ricardo Hoey said the man on the ground would not get out of the way of the car. As soon as gardaí were called, the two defendants left the scene. A doctor passing by offered assistance before paramedics arrived and the victim was taken to Cork University Hospital, where he died on January 8, 2023.
Ricardo Hoey and his mother, Leona Hoey, called to gardaí, and the defendant made admissions about his involvement in an assault within less than an hour of it occurring. Jordan Deasy went into hiding and was found in Crosshaven on December 31, 2022, and when interviewed he also made admissions about his involvement in the assault.
Det Garda Norris said one piece of CCTV from the area at the relevant time was particularly significant, showing Matt O’Neill was pushed to the ground by Ricardo Hoey and any further punches or kicks occurred when he was on the ground.
When Jordan Deasy was interviewed, he accepted the late Mr O’Neill was defenceless and the assault was unnecessary, cowardly and unfair and that Mr O’Neill was not a threat to them on the ground.
Mr Hoey had no previous convictions. Jordan Deasy had 11, including one for assault causing harm which occurred in December 2021. At the time of the attack on Matt O’Neill on December 28, 2022, Mr Hoey was 19 and is now 21, Mr Deasy was 18, and is now 20.
Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford said she would have to consider the evidence and reports presented for Thursday’s sentencing hearing, and she would impose sentences on July 31. The two defendants were remanded in custody until then.
The judge expressed concern about the precise level of acceptance by the two defendants — Mr Hoey saying he acted the way he did out of fear, and Mr Deasy claiming Mr O’Neill was standing when he struck him first. These issues were addressed by their senior counsel Tom Creed and Brendan Grehan, for Mr Hoey and Mr Deasy, respectively.
Mr Creed said: “I have to accept the violence was gratuitous and the victim was defenceless. It was not planned, this is something that happened over a very brief period.”
He presented character evidence that the accused was gentle and kind and this was out of character and that he would be at low risk of reoffending.
Mr Hoey said he thinks about the victim, who did not deserve what happened to him.
Mr Creed said while it could be the case that offenders had to grow towards acceptance of wrongdoing, his cooperation was immediate.
“If he said, no comment, no comment, no comment, the guards would have had difficulties piecing the case together.” On the issue of acceptance, Mr Grehan said for a young person “the enormous burden that one has taken a life” could be difficult to accept.
Mr Grehan said: “Listening to Mr [Pat] O’Neill, one cannot but be struck by the legacy left by Matt O’Neill and the lives he saved, in life and in death. No amount of years or biblical retribution could bring Matt back. For Mr Deasy, this would have been a very sobering experience, having been on a feckless course in his life… There was no intention to kill or cause serious injury.”
Mr Grehan and Mr Creed both stressed the two accused had offered pleas of guilty to manslaughter before the trial but this was not accepted by the DPP and the murder trial went ahead last month.
Pat O’Neill presented powerful victim evidence on behalf of himself and his wife Eileen on Thursday, recalling how Matt — who was born in Brisbane, Australia — loved water sports and could swim before he could walk at just nine months of age and how as a family, the three of them would surf, climb, kayak and camp together, forming an inseparable bond.
“On a cold wet winter Saturday or Sunday, Matt would be the one waking up early and insisting we go out and do some activity – he would come and wake me up by lifting up my eyelid and say, ‘Wake up Dad”, talking into my eye,” said Mr O’Neill.
He recalled how Matt had been involved in several rescues in his lifetime, including once when they were surfing on a beach in Kerry and six people got into difficulty and while he [Mr O’Neill] was trying to get three people to shore, Matt went to the assistance of the other three people.
“He gave two of them his surfboard to stay afloat — he brought the third one in and he was a in very serious condition — the Coast Guard helicopter took him from the beach to hospital. Matt’s actions saved that man’s life — Matt was 13 years old at the time.
“Even now, he has gone on to save a further three lives by donating his organs, which were successfully transplanted,” said Mr O’Neill, who described his son as “tall and handsome and having a quiet and pleasant disposition and he was a kind and gentle soul.”
Mr O’Neill recalled how both he and Eileen were with Matt as he lay lifeless and bleeding on the street on the night he was attacked, surrounded by people trying to save his life and they remain haunted by those images and “the thought of the lonely terror and pain he must have felt”.
“When Matt’s life support was turned off [on January 8, 2023] — it was 29 minutes before he passed — a minute for every year of his life. We held his hand — it was 29 minutes of heartbreaking sadness that no parent should ever have to experience and this trauma will never leave us.
"There will never again be Christmas in our home — in fact, it is unlikely that there will ever be any celebration after the mindless aggression and violence against our son and a complete lack of empathy, when they [the two defendants] could have walked away.
“Matt and his mum, Eileen, were very close. They both loved music and films. Two of his favourite songs were Fleetwood Mac’s 'Dreams' and 'Hold Me Close' by Elton John and Britney Speers. When we hear those songs on the radio it stops us in our tracks with sadness.
“Sometimes, when something happens that Matt would have found amusing, we say: ‘Matt would have loved that’. His smile flashes before our eyes and it so real — then the reality of his absence hits us again,” he said before thanking paramedics and medics who tended and cared for Matt.
“Matt was our only child, his name was in my phone as ‘Body and Soul’ and that’s what he was — ‘our body and soul’ – we lost our whole family that day and now there is just an empty sorrow and sadness,” he said, as he also paid tribute to investigating gardaí and the prosecution legal team.
Mr O’Neill said Matt had “difficulties in recent years but where there’s life, there’s hope and we never lost hope or love for Matt but that hope and any chance for his future has been taken away from us by a mindless, senseless, cowardly act with no respect for life.”