A DEFROCKED priest who disrupted the men’s Olympic marathon by grabbing the lead runner was given a 12-month suspended sentence yesterday.
Cornelius Horan, 57, a former Roman Catholic priest who lives in London but is from Co Kerry, dashed out of the crowd dressed in a kilt and red beret, and dragged the marathon leader to the ground.
He was sentenced and released from custody by a Greek judge yesterday. The court was told that Horan would have to serve the sentence if he violated any laws in Greece in the next three years. It also fined him €3,000 (£2,000) for the attack.
He apologised to the court for his actions and said that he hoped to be forgiven for his actions on Judgment Day.
The court could have sentenced Horan to five years, but apparently gave the suspended sentence because of his mental state. Horan told police officers that he staged the disruption to “prepare for the Second Coming”.
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Horan’s victim, Vanderlei de Lima, from Brazil, was only three miles from the finish when Horan bundled him into spectators at the side of the road. After a scuffle, the runner managed to get away, but was clearly rattled, and finished third.
The Brazilian Olympic Committee put in an official complaint to the Greek organisers and at one point the medal ceremony for the event, staged during the closing ceremony for the Games, was in doubt.
The race jury decided that the result must stand. However, the International Olympic Committee awarded de Lima the Pierre de Coubertin Olympic medal for fair play and Olympic values. Baron de Coubertin was the founder of the modern Games.
Horan was taken to the General Police Division of Attica, where he stayed before appearing in court yesterday.
Police said that he had arrived in Greece on a British Airways flight on Sunday morning, spent the earlier part of the day in a taverna and was drunk when apprehended.
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Dan Horan, his brother, said that his family were shocked and appalled by his actions and wanted to apologise to the Brazilian people. “We are looking to see if we might be able to contact Brazilian television at some stage to apologise to the people over there and to this man personally, if possible, because if the role were reversed and it was a Brazilian cost Ireland we’d say we want total recourse,” he said.
Horan also disrupted last year’s Formula One British Grand Prix at Silverstone by sprinting across the track. He was jailed for two months for aggravated trespass but was freed because he had already served six weeks on remand.
After that incident, his details were passed to major sporting events, including the London Marathon. When he attempted to disrupt that marathon this year, police spotted him and pinned him down. Horan has also tried to protest on Centre Court at Wimbledon.
Leslie Broad, of Deunant Books, which publishes Mr Horan’s books on biblical prophecies on its website, said: “He seems fairly convinced that the Second Coming is due shortly. After the incident at Silverstone, he did say he would never do anything like that again. He comes across as a shy, very intelligent and compassionate man, but as is often the way with people who are very intelligent, it sometimes manifests itself in very strange ways.”