The Circuit Criminal Court in Cork heard that on 23 May 2018, Thomas Lynch got a chamois cloth and placed the substance, thallium, on the car door handle of his co-worker Owen Sheehan.
Detective Garda Cormac Ryan told the court that Mr Lynch had put an unknown quantity of the substance on the car handle of Mr Sheehan's car at his place of work. Det Gda Ryan said that when Lynch was arrested he directed gardaí to Ballinaclash Woods, 10 minutes from his home. When they went there, Mr Lynch brought them to a hole in the bark of a tree. Gardai found a bottle containing the subtance wrapped up in cotton wool.Mr Lynch told gardaí that he imported a vial of the substance from Italy for €70 to €80, having watched a programme called "Unsolved Crimes" on television.
Det Garda Ryan said that he was apprehensive about any future contact between Lynch and Mr Sheehan. He asked Judge Ó Donnabháin to consider ordering Lynch to desist from indirect or direct contact with the victim in the case. In an emotional victim impact statement, Owen Sheehan said he had been employed by the company for 14 years.
"When I realised the nature of the toxic substance that the accused had procured and that it could have caused death it really shook me. It terrifies me." "I have had weeks worth of nights where I have had nothing but extremely vivid and extremely bad dreams and nightmares. I believe my life will never be the same again."He now suffers from extreme anxiety.