DPP lashed by Tralee trial judge

JUDGE SLAMS DPP FOR HANDLING OF KEY DANGEROUS DRIVING CASE FILES

A JUDGE has issued a stinging rebuke to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) over how it handled the case of a Listowel woman found guilty of dangerous driving causing serious harm.

At Tralee Circuit Criminal Court on Friday Aine Stack (23) of Bedford, Listowel received an 18-month suspended sentence for dangerous driving causing serious harm, arising from a road accident at Clogherbrien, Tralee on August 30 2013.

An American tourist, John Lenahan (67), was seriously injured in the collision and passed away 10 days later.

Ms Stack was charged with dangerous driving causing death, even though the post mortem could not definitively state that the man had died as a direct result of the accident.

The post mortem report and another medical report on Mr Lenahan –which showed his condition had improved while in hospital after the accident – were only provided to the defence team on the second day of the trial.

It also emerged that in November 2014 State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster had written to gardaí stating that it could not be said “to the criminal standard of proof this collision caused the death of Mr Lenahan”.

This written communication also wasn’t seen by the defence until the case was underway.

Subsequently – in a move trial Judge Tom O’Donnell described as “highly unusual” – the DPP asked that the charge be amended to a lesser count mid-trial.

Judge O’Donnell said that as a result the defence could justifiably – and “with a considerable chance of success” – have sought a new trial.

This was only avoided by the fact that the accused had agreed to allow her trial proceed on the new, lesser, charge.

Judge O’Donnell expressed grave concerns about how the DPP had managed the case, describing the delays in providing the medical and post mortem documents and the request to amend the charge mid trial as “an extraordinary turn of events”.

“The defence would have had ample grounds to have the jury discharged,” as a result of the “bizarre twist” that had taken place in the trial he said.

“The defence took a pragmatic decision to allow the case go ahead rather than to prolong the matter,” said Judge O’Donnell.

He also expressed confusion as to how Dr Bolster’s letter had been sent to a Garda Superintendent in November 2014 but had not been provided to Ms Stack’s defence team for over three years.

Judge O’Donnell said the defendant was a young woman of “excellent character” who had no previous convictions “not even a parking ticket.”

He added that speed or alcohol had not been a factor in the crash and that the accident seemed to be the result “of a momentary error with a tragic outcome,”.

The Judge said Ms Stack had accepted culpability at the earliest possible stage and “had done everything in her power to expedite the matter” and had displayed “genuine remorse at all times,”.

Judge O’Donnell also praised the Lenahan family who, he said, had displayed remarkable forgiveness and charity in their request that Ms Stack be spared jail.

Judge O’Donnell imposed an 18-month suspended sentence and banned Ms Stack from driving for four years.