Man (70) banned from Wicklow after attacking neighbours with cricket bat

Shay Wheelock (70), of no fixed abode but formerly of Arklow, Co. Wicklow, appeared before Wicklow Criminal Circuit Court for sentencing, after pleading guilty to an amended indictment of assault causing harm, contrary to Section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, and to the production of an article, namely a cricket bat.

Garda Leanne O’Hanlon, formerly of Arklow Garda Station, testified that on March 13, 2022, at around 6:30pm, Elaine O’Connor and three neighbours were outside doing some gardening when the defendant came out of his house to confront them, holding a mobile phone. Ms O’Connor challenged Mr Wheelock, asking why he was recording them. Mr Wheelock stepped back and then punched Ms O’Connor in the nose. He struck her a second time in the jaw and a third time in the left eye.

Gda O’Hanlon told the court that when Ms O’Connor asked Mr Wheelock why he had punched her, he replied: “You were cutting my flowers.”

The court heard that Ms O’Connor’s husband and daughter came outside upon hearing the disturbance. During the altercation, Mr Wheelock’s former partner also grabbed a neighbour by the throat. Amid the struggle, Mr Wheelock retrieved a cricket bat from the front of his home and struck one of the neighbours across the back.

In her statement to gardaí, Ms O’Connor said: “I saw Shay making growling noises and swinging the bat.” She said that Mr Wheelock then struck another neighbour in the back before Ms O’Connor’s husband managed to take the bat from him.

Gda O’Hanlon informed the court that this was not the first incident between Mr Wheelock and Ms O’Connor. A few months earlier, Mr Wheelock had been power-washing the footpath when Ms O’Connor pulled into her driveway with her children in the car. Mr Wheelock approached her vehicle and told her that she had damaged his car and that he would not be taking responsibility. Ms O’Connor said this incident had left her “shaken”.

Ms O’Connor attended hospital immediately after the incident. A medical report was handed into the court, which showed that following facial X-rays and a CT scan, no fractures were detected.

James Kelly BL, counsel for the prosecution, read a victim impact statement on behalf of Ms O’Connor.

In her statement, Ms O’Connor said her life had been “changed forever” following the assault.

“After the incident, I could not sleep. My body shook for days. I could not sleep at all,” she said.

She told the court that she now keeps her blinds closed all the time and rarely leaves her home. “I’m paranoid about what other people are thinking of me,” she said.

Ms O’Connor said she suffers from constant headaches and frequently second-guesses herself. “The anxiety and trauma have taken over my life,” she said.

She added that the impact of the assault had affected her ability to care for her young granddaughter. “I have a two-year-old granddaughter, and I’m supposed to be her childminder, but even that has been affected,” she said.

The court heard that Mr Wheelock was arrested in July 2022 and brought to Arklow Garda Station, where he provided a pre-prepared statement outlining his version of events.

Mr Wheelock, who was representing himself after his legal team came off the record a week before sentencing, told the court that he had made a statement at Arklow Garda Station in 2018.

He alleged that his Mercedes AMG, which he claimed was previously owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber and valued at €250,000, had been stolen by members of An Garda Síochána in a “conspiracy”.

Mr Wheelock also claimed that a further €250,000 had been taken from him. He told the court that “if I had access to PULSE I could provide evidence to prove it is true”.

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Judge Patrick Quinn instructed Mr Wheelock to focus his questioning solely on matters relevant to his current sentencing hearing and permitted him only to cross-examine Gda O’Hanlon.

Mr Wheelock alleged that the incident arose because Ms O’Connor and her neighbours “harassed him” by calling him a paedophile and a drug dealer every time he opened his front door. When asked about his solicitor, he claimed that one solicitor had told him he “is too hot to handle”.

Mr Wheelock told the court that he moved out of the estate four days after the incident and that he “sold the house for €100,000 below market value”.

Judge Quinn sentenced Mr Wheelock to one year’s imprisonment, fully suspending the sentence for two years. He was also ordered to stay away from County Wicklow and to write a letter of apology to his victims. The cricket bat used in the assault was handed over to the victim as compensation. The bat, a collector’s item, is valued at more than €2,000.

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