A former senior official at the National Security Agency has been sentenced to 20 years for killing his adopted 3-year-old on in 2013.
Brian Patrick O'Callaghan, 38, of Damascus, Maryland, will have all but 12 years of his sentence suspended and will also get credit for time served, according to the decision handed down by Judge John Debelius. He pleaded guilty to first-degree child abuse resulting in death for the death of his son, Hyunsu, in 2014.
Investigators said the little boy, who was adopted from South Korea in October 2013, had impact trauma on his body, as well as internal bleeding when he died.
O'Callaghan said as he was helping give Hyunsu a shower Jan. 31, 2014, the boy slipped in the bathtub, falling backward and hitting his shoulder. The next afternoon, O'Callaghan said, Hyunsu was unresponsive after a nap and had mucus coming from his nose.
O'Callaghan said he took Hyunsu to a Germantown emergency room several hours later, where he was deemed to be in critical condition and possibly brain dead. Hyunsu died two days later.
Doctors said he suffered head trauma, for which O'Callaghan couldn't provide an explanation, according to charging documents. The child's skull was fractured and his brain was bleeding.
An obituary posted on the website of the Frederick News-Post gave the boy's full name as Madoc Hyeonsu O'Callaghan and said he was born in South Korea. He was described in the obituary as a "smiling, content, and loving son and brother."
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"He loved his dogs, his big brother, Aidan, and anything his parents made for him to eat. He wasn't dealt the simplest hand in life, but he found something to love in it every day," the obituary said.
At a hearing shortly after O'Callaghan's arrest, his attorney said O'Callaghan was a Marine veteran who had been involved in the rescue of Army POW Jessica Lynch. O'Callaghan served in the Marine Corps from 1997 through 2004 as sergeant.
According to his service record, O'Callaghan was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom for nine months in 2003 and served in Al-Wasit Province, An Nasiriyah and Al Kut. O’Callaghan returned home with post-traumatic stress disorder.
