Teenager jailed for role in violence at party where Cameron Blair was murdered

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 on Monday, Mr Justice David Keane said the defendant had “deliberately armed” himself and threatened others with a knife in a “calculated and deliberate” manner but had not used the weapon.

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 prolonged and protracted period of time”.

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 remarked, adding that there was no intention on his part to kill anyone or cause serious harm.

Mr Justice Keane said 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.

He described Mr Blair as steadfast, cheerful, open-hearted, courteous and conciliatory and someone who had shown the three teenagers nothing but kindness and hospitality that night.

Referring to “the utter senselessness” of the incident which magnified the “utter 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”.

Mr Blair’s parents, Kathy and Noel Blair, and younger brother Alan were supported in the courtroom on Monday by several other extended family members.

O’Connor (19), of Churchfield Square, Churchfield, Cork pleaded guilty last January to committing violent disorder at Bandon Road in Cork on January 16th, 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 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.

Mr Blair was a native of Ballinascarthy in west Cork and a second-year chemical engineering student at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT). He died at Cork University Hospital on January 16th, 2020 after being stabbed in the neck while attending a student party at a house in Cork city. Another juvenile has already pleaded guilty to his murder.

Before delivering the sentence on Monday, Mr Justice Keane said O’Connor was in the company of two juveniles on the night and Mr Blair had invited them into the house party as a “conciliatory gesture”.

Role in events

Although he had minimised his role on the night to a probation officer by claiming he was not waving the knife in the air, Mr Justice Keane said the accused did not stand over that now and had come to terms more recently with his role in events. It was stated in the probation report that he was concerned “not to lose face” in front of his peers and had displayed an element of bravado on the night, the court heard.

Mitigating factors in O’Connor’s sentence were his previous good character and lack of previous convictions. The court heard he had received a formal caution for assault that occurred when he was 14 years old in October 2017, where he had broken a young male’s nose at an underage disco.

The judge said he would reduce the headline sentence of seven years for violent disorder to five years and suspend the final three years on certain conditions including that O’Connor co-operate with the probation services.

Referring to the production of the knife, Mr Justice Keane set a headline sentence of three years and reduced it to two years due to the mitigating factors.

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 and five years for production of a knife.

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.