‘Dangerous individual’ | 

Man who dragged girl into building, tried to lure boy into car and assaulted gardaí freed

Former auctioneer Shane O’Neill (52), of Shanacashel, Kilmichael, Co. Cork, was released from prison this month following a crime spree in 2023 when armed gardaí arrested him in a hideout

Alan Sherry

Yesterday at 17:27

A dangerous offender who attempted to drag a teenage girl into a building, lure a young boy into his car and assaulted multiple gardaí has said they were “just a strange episode of events”.

Former auctioneer Shane O’Neill (52), of Shanacashel, Kilmichael, Co. Cork, was released from prison this month following a crime spree in 2023 when armed gardaí arrested him in a hideout after he was seen prowling around a terrified young family’s home in the dead of night.

O’Neill had been in custody since that incident last June, and locals in the area breathed a sigh of relief when he was jailed for 10 months for several incidents, including a series of robberies in Galway, the theft of a jeep and the trespass incident which took place near his Shanacashel hone.

People in the area are so fearful of O’Neill that they have increased security measures in their homes.

“There is a lot of a fear in the area now that he is back out,” a local source said.

Such is the fear that the community has set up a local alert system for when he is seen out prowling in the middle of the night.

“He’s a very strange individual and a very dangerous individual,” a source said. “People have upgraded security because everyone is fearful of him. Everyone calls each other when they see him. People are afraid to let their kids out since he got back on Saturday.”

O’Neill, who is originally from Dunmanway, is a qualified auctioneer and is understood to own several properties; however, he has been involved a series of increasingly erratic and concerning incidents in recent years.

When the Sunday World approached him at his home this week – where he lives alone – to ask if his days of offending are over, he said they were.

He initially answered to the name Shane when we spoke to him outside his home. But when our reporter identified himself as a journalist, he then claimed he wasn’t Shane.

However, the Sunday World later established that we had the right man. Speaking about himself in the third person, he said his days of offending were over.

“Yeah. Let sleeping dogs lie as they say. It was just a strange episode of events at the end of the day. He just wants to be left alone at the end of the day. It’s just very bad luck the guy had all along.”

The strange episodes of events have been going on for well over a decade and gardaí had so much concern about the danger he posed when spotted outside a family home last year that they sent armed officers to apprehend him.

As far back as 2012, gardaí had to pepper spray O’Neill after he caused a major disturbance during an auction in Limerick.

He had made a number of bids on items but they were considered “unrealistic” by the auction house so were ignored. O’Neill got angry and started shouting when they wouldn’t give him the items.

Gardaí were alerted to the incident and went to apprehend O’Neill – but he violently resisted arrest and had to be pepper sprayed.

In another incident in 2017, he assaulted and tried to abduct a 16-year-old girl in Macroom.

The terrified teen said she had been approached by O’Neill while she was standing outside an office building and he repeatedly asked her for the time. O’Neill forced her into an office premises and dragged her around the building until she managed to escape his clutches.

O’Neill was later arrested after his car was seen leaving the scene on CCTV. While being questioned at Macroom Garda Station he asked to use the toilet but threw water in the eye of a garda before barging past officers.

He assaulted Garda Kieran Cremin and Garda Carmel Nash while trying to make his escape and made it into a back yard – but they managed to detain him after a violent struggle.

He offered no explanation as to why he dragged his victim into a building but months later claimed he only approached her because he was worried about a white van which had been in the area.

At his sentencing hearing, Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said: “The circumstances of the assault on the girl were quite bizarre, and worryingly there was no reason and no explanation.

“Months after the assault he went to the Probation Service and he gave an explanation in relation to white vans in his head and convoluted this into the incident with the victim.”

O’Neill was sentenced to three years in prison, with the final year suspended for those incidents.

However, the suspended part of his sentence was reactivated after he became aggressive with Probation Service staff after his release from prison. Staff said they could not supervise him because he was a threat to their safety.

After his release, he was arrested again after approaching a 17-year-old boy who he tried to get into his car in Dunmanway.

The boy was waiting for a lift home from training when O’Neill approached him in a car and asked him what he was doing there, falsely accused him of stealing from the church and demanded to look into his bag.

He then asked him did he steal the football boots and gum shields in his bag and demanded to know his name.

He told the boy to get in the car and claimed he was going to bring him to gardaí. O’Neill began shouting at the boy who then got into a friend’s car – but O’Neill followed him and started banging on the widows. He later cut across the other vehicle before speeding away.

He was convicted of public order and dangerous driving offences and sentenced to 60 days. O’Neill’s offending continued upon his release.

He stole the purse of a woman in Galway in May last year containing cash and her bank card, which he used to make hundreds of euro worth of transactions.

He later returned to his home in Cork where his erratic behaviour continued.

Sources say he went into local schools who called gardaí on him.

“He was calling into the local schools then saying he was going to enrol a child. They all knew the score and they all rang the guards… there was no child,” a source confirmed.

O’Neill lives on his own in an isolated rural area and locals say despite that fact he has his own home, he regularly spends time in the forest.

Neighbours were so concerned about his behaviour that they constantly alerted each other as to where he was if anyone saw him.

In June last year, locals believed he had been around their houses as sensor lights started going off late at night.

On June 17, O’Neill stole a Toyota Landcruiser in Inchigeelagh – 15km from his home – and took it back to his own property, where he put cloned plates on it.

Shortly after midnight the following morning, neighbours were alerting each other again as he was seen out on the prowl.

One family watched terrified as they spotted him on CCTV outside their home for around 10 minutes before he jumped a ditch and entered their property.

He went to a car on the property and started searching around it before taking items from the glove box. After getting out of the car he approached the house and went to every window and door and started to try to open it.​

The family contacted gardaí who dispatched officers from Macroom as well as armed support from Cork as O’Neill was considered dangerous and possibly armed.

He fled, but gardaí carried out a raid at his nearby property and found him in a hideout he had built himself on his land.

O’Neill was jailed for 10 months as well as an additional 10 months suspended. Locals are terrified he will re-offend.

“He’s a dangerous man and he shouldn’t be out. You will write about this man again. There is no question about it,” one local said. “Everyone is on edge now that he is out.”