Tony O'Connell: freed on bail

Epileptic and nearly blind killer Tony O'Connell has been given one last chance to save himself from a prison sentence.

The 35-year-old severely handicapped man killed Krystyna Walton in a violent attack at his home in Bouthwaite Drive, Acomb, last September.

But Mr Justice Hooper has been trying for months to see if it is possible to give him probation instead of a jail sentence.

Today at Teesside Crown Court the judge released O'Connell on bail for his second attempt at trying to live in the community. He will be sentenced at a date to be fixed later this autumn. In July Mr Justice Hooper sent O'Connell to a probation hostel to see if he could comply with its regulations.

But, O'Connell, after a while there, went to a nearby police station and told police he couldn't stand the people who were in the hostel. Today his barrister Paul Worsley, QC, said it was his "very last chance" and said that if he received a jail sentence it was merely putting off the problem of what to do with O'Connell when he is eventually released.

O'Connell pleaded guilty to manslaughter at Sheffield Crown Court in March.

Andrew Campbell QC, for the prosecution, told Mr Justice Hooper that the attack had occurred when both victim and O'Connell were heavily drunk and that O'Connell had claimed he had hit Mrs Walton four times.

But the pathologist who examined her body said there were at least five blows, one to the nose, which had probably killed her.

O'Connell refused to come into court today.

Security staff told his barrister he was being so violent in the cells that it would take four security staff to carry him into the dock.

Mr Worsley told the judge that O'Connell was refusing to come into court because he believed someone had stolen his tobacco.

The judge decided to hear the case in his absence, and told Mr Worsley and a probation officer to see O'Connell in his cells and give him warnings about his conduct. He released him on bail on condition that he does not bring alcohol into the residential care home in Humberside, where he will live, obeys the instructions of the staff, and observes a curfew from 11pm to 7am. O'Connell was remanded in custody from the morning after the killing until spring this year, and the judge has already said that if he fails to prove he can live in the community he must decide whether the prison term he has already served is sufficient.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.