Mother of Ian Horgan's hammer attack victim: He should be left to rot in prison 

Mary O’Callaghan dismissed the letters of apology Ian Horgan wrote to her and her son, saying: “I wouldn’t even pick up the paper he touched.”

Mary O'Callaghan leaves court with her son, Hassan Baker. Credit: RTÉ

The mother of a young man left with life-changing injuries after a brutal hammer attack in Cork City says her biggest fear now is that her son’s attacker — a convicted killer and rapist who has spent almost half his life behind bars — will commit more serious crimes when he gets out of prison.

Mary O’Callaghan, who watched Ian Horgan being jailed this week for attacking her and her son, Hassan Baker, in their home last year, branded Horgan a “feral animal” with no remorse, and said given his history of violent crime, he should never be allowed walk the streets again.

“When you look at all of his crimes, he shouldn’t be out on the street ever again,” she said. 

“I stared at him in court and thought: ‘You animal’, and then when I heard his history, I thought: ‘How could they have left them out to walk the streets again?’ 

“I don’t think he’ll change.

 You can’t change an animal like that. He is just playing the system.

“He is a coward. He never once looked at me, never once opened his mouth in court, he just didn’t give a damn.

“He’s laughing at the law, and I am concerned that he will commit worse crimes when he is released from prison.

“There will never be a right time for him to walk the streets again. He should be left to rot in prison.” 

Ian Horgan at Bantry Court. Picture: Andy Gibson.

Ms O’Callaghan, 66, spoke out this week after Horgan, 39, was jailed for eight and a half years after pleading guilty to assault causing serious harm to her son, Mr Baker, 29, and assault causing her harm following the hammer attack in their home on the southside of the city on March 26, 2022.

Horgan was previously convicted of raping and strangling beautician Rachel Kiely, 22, in the Regional Park in Ballincollig, west of Cork city, in 2000. He was just 16 when he killed her as she walked her dogs in the park close to her home.

Rachel Kiely, who was killed by Horgan in Ballincollig.

Described at the time as “a good kid, big for his age and a good underage footballer”, sources linked to that investigation have said it was hard to imagine how a young man would rape and kill a young girl he knew to see, a neighbour of his, in his local park.

Sources said what is remarkable about Horgan is how someone from a respected family, the eldest of four children, who had dropped out of school aged 14, someone so “unremarkable, someone so ordinary” had embarked on this life of violent crime.

Ms O’Callaghan said she has been thinking a lot this week about Rachel’s parents and family and how close she came to losing her son in this latest attack.

“My son is alive — thank God for that, but poor Rachel Kiely is dead,” she said. “Horgan killed some mother’s child in 2000. I was lucky that my boy wasn’t killed.

“He [Horgan] has been in and out of prison, in and out of prison, and nothing seems to have changed. If I had my way, he would never be left out of prison again.

“The politicians and people who make decisions about keeping fellas like this in prison should stop and consider if this happened to one of their sons or daughters — if one of their sons or daughters was attacked or killed — what would they do?

If it happened to the son or daughter of a politician, they would change the laws immediately and bring in longer sentences.” 

Cork Circuit Criminal Court was told on Tuesday that Horgan, who had a drug addiction at the time of the hammer attack, has a total of 17 previous convictions, including for the rape and manslaughter of Ms Kiely, for robbery, affray, drug dealing, and car theft.

He was sentenced to 12 months in prison last September for breaching the Sex Offenders Act by using the dating app Tinder under an alias, and for failing to notify gardaí of a change of address.

His solicitor said his client had always maintained that the use of the name 'Cian' on the Tinder account was a typing error and not the creation of an alias.

But Horgan pleaded guilty to a charge of applying to open an account on Tinder between May 24, 2021, and May 31, 2021, in contravention of the Sex Offenders Act 2011. He also pleaded guilty to failing to notify gardaí of a change of address as he is also obliged to do under the Sex Offenders Act following his conviction for the rape of Ms Kiely.

On Tuesday, Detective Superintendant Mick Comyns, who oversaw the investigation into the hammer attack, told Cork Circuit Criminal Court how on the afternoon of March 26, 2022, Horgan had travelled from what was his then home at the Hermitage in Macroom to Cork by bus, carrying a bag containing a hammer and a change of clothes and shoes.

He went to a derelict shed on waste ground near Ms O’Callaghan’s home on MacCurtain Villas and changed into a black hoodie and snood before knocking on her front door.

When she answered, he barged in and began hitting Mr Baker with the hammer.

He grabbed Mr Baker in an arm lock and when he fell to the floor, Horgan began raining hammer blows down on his head, fracturing his skull and his left cheekbone. He tried to disguise himself by speaking with a Dublin accent and talking about collecting a debt.

Ms O’Callaghan, who suffered a fractured wrist trying to save her son, told in a victim impact statement how she continues to experience flashbacks of the incident and she still sees the imprint of what Horgan did to her son on the side of his skull.

The court heard her describe the scene as “like being part of a horror movie”.

“He kept on pounding Hassan’s head with the hammer,” she said.

"At this stage, Hassan was unconscious and I thought he was dead. I managed to get in between them, and I shouted that he is dead.

“After I said to him that Hassan was dead, he then left.

I really felt my son, Hassan, was dead as the place was like a bloodbath. 

"The next thing I remember was being in the hospital and the doctors were explaining about the brain surgery that they were going to perform on my son.” 

Before Horgan left the scene, he used his phone to film Mr Baker and Ms O’Callaghan. Gardaí recovered the footage and it was shown in court on Tuesday. It showed Mr Baker lying crumpled and seemingly lifeless on the floor, his face covered in blood.

After the attack, Horgan went to Fitzgerald Park where he dubbed the song ‘Lovely Day’ over photographs of Mr Baker and Ms O’Callaghan, and sent messages to his then girlfriend, Clarisse O’Callaghan, who had previously gone out with Mr Baker, in which he boasted he “destroyed him” and “he won’t be acting the hard man ever again”.

Det Supt Comyns said following a garda investigation, they found Horgan’s clothing and the hammer at the derelict shed, where he returned after the attack to change clothes, and a forensic examination found traces of both Mr Baker’s blood and Ms O’Callaghan’s blood on Horgan’s clothing.

Mr Baker told in his victim impact statement how he had never spoken to Horgan prior to that day, but that the assault has left him “devastated, scared, and in a paranoid state, looking out the window and over my shoulder every single day” as he recalled what exactly happened to him.

Mr Baker said that his life had changed dramatically as a result of the assault, and he had suffered three seizures since it happened, while he now suffers from migraines and his speech has also been “affected majorly” as he now speaks with a stammer.

“I worry about the long-term effects that this will have on me, as my short-term memory has not been the same since,” he said. 

I get very frustrated with this, and my mother is constantly worrying about me and does not want to let me out of her sight."

Det Supt Comyns said that Horgan did not answer any questions when he was arrested and interviewed by gardaí about the assault.

Judge Helen Boyle described Horgan’s attack on Mr Baker and Ms O'Callaghan as “cowardly”, and said it merited a headline sentence of 12 years, but reduced it to nine years in light of Horgan’s guilty plea, while she suspended the final six months of the sentence.

Prosecution barrister, Donal O’Sullivan BL, said the DPP was of the view that the assault was at the higher end of the scale of assault causing serious harm offences, suggesting it merited a sentence of 10 to 15 years. Judge Boyle said she shared the DPP’s view on the seriousness of the offence.

But she noted that Horgan had pleaded guilty and spared the State the expense of a trial that would have involved 130 witnesses, while his plea had also spared his victims having to testify.

Ms O’Callaghan welcomed the prison sentence, but said she would have preferred if it was longer. And she dismissed the letters of apology Horgan wrote to her and her son.

“I wouldn’t even pick up the paper he touched,” she said. 

I don’t believe for a second that his apology is genuine. 

"I expected a longer prison sentence, but I am grateful that he is off the streets."

She praised the detectives who investigated the case and for bringing Horgan to justice.

“They went above and beyond, and they were with us every step of the way,” she said. 

"I will forever be appreciative of the work they did in this case."

And she also spoke of her own recovery, not just from the physical injuries but from the sense of terror that the attack caused in the days and weeks afterwards.

“I had never felt afraid in my own home, but after the attack, I felt afraid at home and slept with the light on,” she said.

“Then one day, I decided that I was allowing somebody like him to make me feel afraid — in my own home. And that was hurting me and my son — by allowing him to dictate how I felt in my own home.

I was disgusted that he had this kind of power over me, and so I needed to get rid of that. 

"And I did, thanks to the support of my family. They were amazing.” 

During Horgan’s appearance in court in 2007 on charges linked to the post office robbery two years earlier, during which the elderly owners of the post office were tied up in their own kitchen, his defence senior counsel, Tim O’Leary, referred to the Rachel Kiely case and said: “It was a notorious offence committed when he was under the age of majority.

Ian Horgan in 2007. Picture: Garrett White / Collins

"I would ask you to give him some possibility of redemption in his extremely bleak life. He does want to change. He does want to try. He does not want to spend the entirety of his life in jail.” 

Judge Patrick J Moran then said to Horgan: “You have done many courses in prison. I hope you have learned something. I hope you will be able to follow a relatively normal occupation and that you will get assistance.” 

But Ms O’Callaghan said it seems obvious now that the previous sentences have made no difference whatsoever to Horgan.

“He’s only biding his time,” she said. "In prison, he will get three meals a day. He’ll have access to a gym, to TVs, games consoles, or whatever.

Therapy won’t help him. He is an animal.

"I know people will be shocked at what I say, but I can’t help it.

"If it was up to me, I would lock him up and throw away the key. I wouldn’t ever let him out again.

“He should never be allowed to walk the streets again.

“I know people will be shocked at what I’m saying, but I’m just saying what I feel.”