Jail for teenager who brandished knife at house where Cameron Blair was killed

Scott O Connor, of Churchfield Square, Churchfield, Cork, pictured at the Criminal Courts of Justice on Parkgate Street in Dublin. Picture: Collins Courts

A teenage boy who was "clearly threatening violence" when he brandished a knife outside a house party in Cork City where 20-year-old college student Cameron Blair was murdered has been jailed for two years.

Sentencing Scott O'Connor at the Central Criminal Court today, Mr Justice David Keane said that the defendant had "deliberately armed" himself and threatened others with a knife, but had not used it. 

However, the judge described the threats as "calculated and deliberate".

The judge noted that the act occurred on a public street and O'Connor had engaged in the confrontation for five minutes, which he called "a protracted period of time". 

"At all times it was open to him to walk away," he said.

He said the actions by O'Connor were "entirely unprovoked" and directed towards people who had shown him and his two companions "hospitality" during the evening. 

The purpose was to threaten and intimidate students at the house," he said.

Mr Justice Keane said that the circumstances of the violent disorder could not be dealt with "in a vacuum" due to the terrible tragedy that ultimately occurred. 

"There can be no doubt that his actions contributed significantly to the febrile atmosphere in which the murder of Cameron had occurred," he said.

Referring to "the utter senselessness" and "indescribable tragedy" of Cameron's death, the judge said he would like to extend his sincere condolences to his family and friends on "the tragic and irreplaceable loss of a fine young man".

Cameron's parents Kathy and Noel Blair and younger brother Alan were supported in the courtroom today by several other extended family members.

Kathy and Noel Blair, parents of the late Cameron Blair, pictured leaving the Criminal Courts of Justice on Parkgate Street in Dublin today. Picture: Collins Courts

O'Connor (aged 19) of Churchfield Square, Churchfield, Cork, pleaded guilty last January to committing violent disorder at Bandon Rd in Cork on January 16, 2020. 

He has also pleaded guilty to producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury in the course of a dispute, to wit a knife, in a manner likely unlawfully to intimidate another person on the same occasion.

The court heard during last month's sentence hearing that the now 19-year-old accused had pulled up his top, revealing his waistband, when his 14-year-old friend told him: "Give it to me, I'll shank one of them."

Evidence was also given that the defendant told gardaí that he had earlier picked up the knife from the kitchen floor of the house "to scare" the others at the party, but said he had no intention of using it.

Defence counsel Ronan Munro SC, for O'Connor, told the sentencing hearing that his client was "clearly threatening violence" when he waved the knife outside the house party, and had "minimised" his behaviour from the night. 

The barrister said his client must be sentenced in that he had "done more than show a knife" on the evening of the incident and "there was a brandishing". Mr Munro said it was the agreed position between the parties that the prosecution evidence was not contested and that the knife had been brandished in the air, causing alarm to people at the party.

The victim, Cameron Blair, was a native of Ballinascarthy in West Cork and a second-year chemical engineering student at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT). 

Murder victim Cameron Blair. Picture: Gavin Browne

He died at Cork University Hospital (CUH) on January 16, 2020, after being stabbed in the neck while attending a student party at the house in Cork City. Another juvenile has already pleaded guilty to his murder.

O'Connor has no previous convictions.

O'Connor was sentenced to two years for violent disorder and two years for the production of the knife. The teenager's sentences are to run concurrently and were backdated to when he went into custody.

The maximum sentence for violent disorder is 10 years in prison. The production of a knife carries a maximum sentence of five years.

In April 2020, a teenage boy, then aged 17, who murdered Cameron by plunging a knife into his neck, received a life sentence that will be reviewed in 2032. 

The boy, who could not be named because he was a minor, pleaded guilty to murdering Cameron on Bandon Rd in Co Cork on January 16, 2020.