Overview
- Mr Justice Paul McDermott imposed a life sentence and a concurrent four years and six months for two counts of child cruelty.
- Paramedics found the child unresponsive on March 13, 2021; medics documented extensive bruising, a torn liver, a broken rib and catastrophic brain trauma, and life support ended three days later.
- Evidence detailed periods of confinement to his room and a final assault in which he was violently shaken and his head struck the floor.
- A pathologist testified that either the head injury or the liver laceration alone would have been fatal.
- A court order restricting identification was lifted after applications by RTÉ and Mediahuis, and the boy’s father, John Paul O’Connell, is serving seven years for endangerment, neglect and assisting an offender.