Parents and son to stand trial over fatal road smash

THREE members of the same family charged in connection with a fatal road crash have had their cases sent to crown court.

It follows a horrific collision in north Antrim that left two young people dead and another seven people injured.

A judge had previously threatened to throw out the case if prosecutors were not ready to proceed, but at Coleraine Magistrates’ Court yesterday, the preliminary inquiry — the legal procedure to send the case to the Crown Court — was held.

Shane Kinney ( 22), from Drones Road, Armoy, is accused in connection with the road smash, which happened in Easter last year.

The court was told how the legal file on him ran to more than 1,400 pages.

Kinney appeared alongside his mother and father in the dock, and all three were released on continuing bail to appear for arraignment at Antrim Crown Court on November 25.

Kinney is charged with causing the deaths of Johnny Black (19), from Ballycastle, and Robin Wilson (26), from Armoy, by dangerous driving on April 6, 2015, at Cushendall Road, Ballycastle.

He is further charged with causing grievous bodily injury by dangerous driving to Clodagh Arbuckle, Robert Kirkpatrick, Eamon McKeague, Tom Gault, Ciara McHugh, Denise Dunlop and Patrick Neeson.

He is additionally charged with failing to report an accident and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.

The accused is also charged with handling stolen goods — a rear bumper and boot lid of a Volkswagen Golf — obstructing a police officer and intent to pervert the course of justice by making a false statement to police in relation to ownership of a mobile phone that had been used after a fatal road traffic collision.

He is further accused of conspiring with his parents to pervert the course of justice by removing a Volkswagen Golf allegedly involved in a fatal road traffic collision, and of assisting alleged offenders in the theft of a bumper and boot lid. All the charges relate to April 6 last year.

Kinney’s father, Kevin Alexander Kinney (51), and his mother, 49-year-old Sharon Kinney, all from the same address, both face three charges.

Those charges are intending to pervert the course of justice by removing a Volkswagen Golf allegedly involved in a fatal road traffic collision, conspiring to pervert the course of justice in assisting in the removal of a Golf car, and assisting an offender.

Kevin Kinney faces a fourth charge — theft of car parts worth £100 from McAuley Car Dismantlers.