Strongman competitor Sean O'Hagan admits domestic abuse charges

​Sean O’Hagan was due to go no trial at at Newry Crown Court, sitting at Craigavon but after a jury were sworn in, defence KC Eugene Grant asked for the 34-year-old to be re-arraigned on six of the charges against him.

Standing in the dock wearing a blue suit and towering over the prison officer standing beside him O’Hagan, from Church View Way, Laurencetown near Banbridge, entered guilty pleas to two counts of common assault of his ex partner, two of causing criminal damage to her car as well as single charges of harassment and driving dangerously on Meadow Bank in Banbridge, all committed between 10-15 June last year.

Following the admissions, prosecuting KC Geraldine McCullough asked for further charges of robbery and a domestic abuse offence to be marked as “left on the books,” an application which was granted by Judge Paul Ramsey KC.

Freeing O’Hagan on bail, the judge adjourned the case to allow probation to compile a pre-sentence report.

He told the strongman he would pass sentence on 1 July and advised him to fully cooperate with PBNI when they come to interview him for the report.

Just last month Judge Ramsey had varied O’Hagan’s bail conditions to allow him to travel to the Caribbean to compete in the strongman champions league which is shown on Amazon prime TV.

If he manages to top the league, O’Hagan stands to win $350,000.

Hailing from Loughbrickland and standing at just under 7’ tall, O’Hagan is widely considered to be the tallest of the world’s active and competing strongmen.

O'Hagan's first major success was becoming Ulster's Strongman Man in 2014 when he was 24-years-old, making him the competitions youngest winner and he followed that up by winning Ireland's Strongest Man in 2015.

In 2016, O'Hagan began competing in an international strongman competition, finishing 31st in the Strongman world rankings. In 2017, he qualified for the Strongman Champions League World Finals in Mexico. After 18 matches in various locations across the globe, with his best finish being 4th, he finished 9th in the world final and jumped to 20th strongest man in the world rankings with 71 points.

O'Hagan won the 2020 World's Strongest Viking competition in Fefor, Norway.