Latest news with #JekyllAndHyde
BreakingNews.ie
30-07-2025
- BreakingNews.ie
'Jekyll and Hyde' character jailed after going on a road rampage in Co Donegal
A man described as a 'Jekyll and Hyde' character after he drank alcohol has been jailed for eight months and put off the road for five years after going on a rampage in Co Donegal. Owen Orr committed a series of offences on St Valentine's Day in 2019 leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Advertisement The father-of-five punched another motorist in the face, assaulted a Garda, damaged his motorbike and then crashed his car into a terrified mother and daughter. Orr, who has 31 previous convictions, appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court where he pleaded guilty to a range of offences which all occurred on the same evening. Judge Roderick Maguire said it was completely unacceptable that gardaí had been put in such danger while doing their duty. He also said members of the public were fortunate not to have suffered more serious and lasting injuries as a result of Orr's actions. Advertisement The 32-year-old was charged that, at Cullion Road, Letterkenny, he assaulted Garda Michael Kilcoyne, a peace officer, acting in the course of his duty. The charge is contrary to Section 19 (3) of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act, 1994, as amended by Section 185 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2006. He was charged that he did without lawful excuse damage property, to wit, a Garda Honda motorcycle, belonging to the Chief Superintendent, An Garda Siochana. The charge is contrary to Section 2 (1) of the Criminal Damage Act, 1991. Advertisement Orr was charged with the unlawful interference with a mechanically propelled vehicle, the property of Charles Bonner, while such vehicle was stationary at Manorcunningham by removing the key from the ignition. The charge is contrary to Section 113 or the Road Traffic Act, 1961, as amended by Section 6 of the Road Traffic Act, 1968 and Section 18 of the Road Traffic Act, 2006. He is also charged with dangerous driving o the N13 on February 14th, 2019 He is further charged that, at Dromore, Letterkenny, on February 14th 2019, that he did without lawful excuse damage property, to wit, a Toyota Corolla belonging to Kathleen Birch intending to damage such property or being reckless as to whether such property would be damaged. The charge is contrary to Section 2 (1) of the Criminal Damage Act, 1991. Advertisement He is also charged with failing to report an accident when injury was caused to property or a person at Dromore Lower on February 14th, 2019 being the driver of a vehicle involved in the accident. Other charges were also taken into account by the court. Prosecutor for the State, Ms Fiona Crawford, BL, along with Garda Daire Sheridan outlined the series of events on the day which led to Orr's arrest. He told how another motorist, Charles Bonner, was driving on the dual carriageway into Letterkenny when he saw another car overtaking a series of other vehicles before pulling in front of him. Advertisement Mr Bonner flashed his lights at the car but the other driver, now known to be Owen Orr, slammed on his brakes forcing the other driver to brake. Mr Bonner stopped and the driver of the other car came over, punched him in the nose, pulled the keys out of his jeep and then threw them into a hedge and drove off with the entire incident being captured on dashcam. At Dromore Lower, some kilometres down the road, Mrs Kathleen Birch and her daughter were traveling towards Letterkenny down Lurgybrack when a car pulled out and smashed into them. Mrs Birch suffered pain in her back and legs and feared her car was going to go on fire as other motorists came to her aid. The driver of the other car fled on foot but left his wallet with bank cards and identification at the scene. Garda motorcyclist Michael Kilcoyne arrived at the scene of the accident and went in search of the driver of the other car and found Owen Orr walking at nearby Cullion Road. He addressed Orr who became aggressive and assaulted the Garda by grabbing him by the neck causing his motorbike to fall to the ground. A scuffle broke out and Orr lashed out at the arresting officer by kicking him before he was taken to Letterkenny Garda Station for questioning. While in the station, Orr refused to give either a blood or urine sample to a registered nurse. The accused man was interviewed four days later when sober and the court was told he was very apologetic about the incident. Barrister for Orr, Mr Ciaran Elders, BL, directed by solicitor Frank Dorrian, said his client was very cooperative during the second interview describing him as a 'Jekyll and Hyde' character when he had alcohol taken. He added that he finds himself in a better place today and has been sober since 2023 after two periods in rehabilitation apart from a small lapse. The accused man had a total of €2,000 in compensation to offer including a sum to replace the €500 key for Mr Bonner's jeep, another €750 for the damage to his glasses and €750 to be given to a charity of Garda Kilcoyne's choice. A further €500 was also available to Mrs Birch while the court was also told that civil proceedings are also ongoing arising from the collision. Mr Elders added that his client was now trying to put his life back together and was a man with a high IQ with five children, the oldest of which were also academically gifted and wanted to attend college. Judge Roderick Maguire addressed the accused and asked him how his family were now keeping and how his life was now that he is trying to remain sober. Orr said that he was attending AA meetings four times a week. Mr Elders added that now that it appears that Orr has been rehabilitated and has also come a long way since this incident in 2019, he was not sure how a custodial sentence could benefit Orr or society at large. Passing sentence, Judge Maguire outlined all the events of the night saying he had considered all matters. He outlined a headline sentence but then said he had to consider mitigation before passing a final sentence. He said gardaí had noted that Orr was very easy to deal with when sober, he had not come to Garda attention since, had entered an early plea and was in a much better place today. The Judge also noted his probation report, the fact that he has five children and also considered the management of his alcohol abuse and that he is now attending alcoholics anonymous four times a week. He also noted that compensation had been offered to those caught up in Orr's rampage which he said were concrete expressions or remorse of the accused. Taking all these matters into account, Judge Maguire reduced the headline sentence to one of sixteen months with the last eight months suspended and banned Orr from holding a driving license for five years. He also ordered him to enter a bond to keep the peace for a period of two years upon his release from prison.
Daily Mail
26-07-2025
- Daily Mail
He was the 'perfect' co-worker but 'life of the party' architect with a sexy nickname hid dark secret
Drinking a beer and cracking jokes with colleagues, he seemed like any co-worker enjoying a night out after a busy day in a Manhattan office. But once he left the bar and headed back to his Massapequa Park, Long Island home the architect Rex Heuermann allegedly went Jekyll and Hyde and prowled his neighborhood looking for his next victim to kill as his wife and children slept. Katherine Shepherd worked with Heuermann in the same midtown Manhattan office at 525 Seventh Avenue in New York City 's Fashion District during the early 2000s. She was working for an architectural design firm and his company was providing city permits. On occasion, she and her co-workers would gather at Pete's Tavern in Gramercy Park. She remembered Heuermann acting like the life of the party which later earned him the nickname 'Sexy Rexy' amongst colleagues. 'He was fun. He was funny,' Shepherd told Daily Mail. 'He would tell funny stories and jokes that made everyone laugh.' During working hours, she said he was always professional towards her and the other female employees. 'If he ever made me feel uncomfortable, touched me in any way or would've made any inappropriate sex jokes there was no way I would have worked with him,' she said. 'Never ever did he ever make me feel uncomfortable,' she added. However, she said he liked pretty girls in the office and using them to help get what he wanted professionally. 'He knew how to get permits and was renowned for it. He knew all the people and had all the relationships,' she said. 'He had women in the office that were petite and beautiful and he would send them down to the city to get those permits.' Heuermann was arrested two years ago in July 2023 and initially charged with the murders of three women: Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman. Since then, he has been charged with the murders of four more victims: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack. All the victims were working as sex workers when they vanished after going to meet a client. Their bodies were found dumped along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach and other remote spots on Long Island. Some of the victims had been bound, others had been dismembered and their remains discarded in multiple locations. The 61-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. Shepherd said: 'It's just hard to come to grips that this is the same person. It just doesn't match. It doesn't match. 'Though I know in my heart he did it. The evidence is overwhelming. 'He was able to separate his life - somehow put a divider in-between murderous spawn of Satan to a caring father and business owner. I don't know how but he was able too.' She recalled the first time she met him and said she was stunned by his 6ft 4ins size - a client of one of his alleged victims has described him as resembling an 'ogre'. 'He's one of the biggest men you'll ever meet in your life. It is very intimidating having someone that large,' Shepherd said. 'He joked around a lot and made you feel comfortable because he knew he was big and intimidating. I think he was trying not to be intimidating,' she added. However she said he was 'soft spoken' and described him as coming off as 'arrogant and cocky'. She said: 'He was very smart. He was very confident.' Shepherd remembered how kind he was to her when she injured herself on black ice on a city street and took her to the emergency room when the pain became too much to bear. That day in the hospital, she said he waited for her for hours as she took tests, including an MRI. Once discharged, they went by cab to her apartment in Hell's Kitchen and after he got her settled, he went to the pharmacy to pick up her painkiller prescription. She remembered he made her a slice of toast when he returned before leaving her by herself. 'I was grateful for his help. I felt like he was almost taking care of me like a dad would,' Shepherd said. The day that happened was November 17, 2003, four months earlier one of Heuermann's alleged victims 20-year-old Jessica Taylor's body was found decapitated with her hands cuts off in a wooded area in Manorville, Long Island. 'He (allegedly) cut her head and hands off, spread them around Long Island and four months later took me to the hospital because I was in pain and needed help,' she said. When Shepherd learned Heuermann had been arrested for murder and was not the 'normal, everyday, nerdy guy', she thought he was but a cold blooded killer she was stunned. 'I have a totally different view of this guy because like I said, he took care of me. He helped me. He took time out of his day, his job to take me to the hospital to take care of me. I saw that as, "Wow what a good co-worker realizing that I needed help stopping his day to help me. No one else did,"' she said. In 2005, she started consulting on her own and working with Heuermann directly. She said, they'd meet at job sites and one time, the avid hunter and gun aficionado, taught her how to shoot a gun while they were at a job site in the Bronx. She said she didn't plan on it but went for it. 'It was a 9mm - the kind you see in movies all the time - the black square gangster gun,' she explained. 'Anyway that is what I fired. He was telling me where to put my hand because when you shoot the whole top part goes back and if you put your hand in the wrong spot you can hurt yourself'. On some days they'd travel in the same vehicle to a job. She said their conversations were always focused on business and that he would never talk about his wife or kids. However, she did meet them once when she went to his home to do some measuring for a home renovation project he was planning. She was horrified to later learn that she took measurements in the same area that held a secret room where he would allegedly torture his victims. She recalled her final communication with him was in summer 2011 while she was working in California. She sent an email to Heuermann for some permit expediting work she needed done. She said she jokingly called him 'Rexy' like 'Sexy Rexy' - the playful term that she and her colleagues sometimes used. It was also the time when some of the bodies were being discovered along Ocean Parkway in Suffolk County's GIlgo Beach. She said that he never responded. This month marked two years since Heuermann's arrest and the interior designer still grapples with the idea that her kind-hearted co-worker who became her knight in shining armor when she was in distress, is the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer and charged with the brutal murders of seven women. 'I didn't even know about the Gilgo Beach Killer until two years ago. It feels like someone is playing a trick on me. It feels like you are talking about someone else.' 'I am a little bit in denial, still. The practical side of me understands what happened but I just don't get it. It is really hard to comprehend. 'I didn't know he was capable of that. How is anyone capable of that? He has kids. How do you have kids and a wife and go off and do something like that,' she added. After all this time, Shepherd said her time with Heuermann still haunts her but she concluded: 'It is good to talk about it. Every time I talk about it - it is like a little therapy and it helps me.'
