Two Nenagh men chased a Cork man who sold them bad drugs — but when they kicked in the door of a house in Churchfield to find him they were set upon and seriously assaulted by neighbours.

One of the Tipperary men charged with breaking into the house on September 9, 2018 was due to stand trial at Cork District Court on the charge yesterday but he failed to appear.

Judge Con O’Leary heard the evidence in the absence of Paddy Shore of St Joseph’s Park, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and convicted him of the burglary charge.

The judge imposed a five-month jail sentence but said he would suspend it “having regard to the injuries he suffered”.

The judge told solicitor Michael Quinlan that Shore, aged 29, had 10 days to enter the bond to have the sentence suspended. A condition of the suspension requires him to stay out of Cork for two years.

Judge O’Leary said the picture he had of Shore on the night was that he did not know where he was.

Judge O’Leary was told that the inhabitants of the Churchfield house, a mother and her daughter, who is aged around 20, returned home that night to see the front door kicked in, blood everywhere in the house, doors kicked off hinges inside, and broken glass scattered around.

Detective Garda Pat Barry told the court that Shore and another man had travelled from Nenagh to Cork and bought drugs. However, the two men believed it was a scam and that the drugs were fake so they went looking for the man who sold them.

They believed that the man had run into a house in Churchfield on the northside of Cork City, so the man with Shore kicked in the door and both of them went in.

In fact, the man had no connection with the house. When neighbours saw them breaking in, a group of men armed themselves with weapons, including baseball bats and a machete, and went in after them.

There was a suggestion that they might have thought the woman who lived there or her daughter might have been under attack from the two men, Judge O’Leary was told.

By the time gardaí arrived, Shore and the other man had both sustained horrific injuries, Det Garda Barry said.

Michael Quinlan, solicitor, pointed to the place in the memo where Shore said that he believed they had been invited into the house.

Inspector James Hallahan said there was other evidence of joint enterprise where the other man kicked in the door and Shore went into the house after him.