Man claims he wasn’t the driver of car being chased

A 29-year-old man on two counts of dangerous driving on the same day told Judge Kevin Kilrane it wasn’t him who was the driver.

David Moran, of Calry Court, Stephen St, Street was charged with the offences on January 4 th 2017 at Stephen St and also Holborn Hill. He was represented by Ms Laura Spellman, solicitor.

CCTV footage was shown to the court from both Stephen St car-park and the Rendevous pub overlooking Holborn St.

Garda Martin Kelly explained he had been on mountain bike patrol when he saw the defendant driving into the Stephen St car-park at 3:35pm.

He followed and saw the car was turning in the car-park.

He positioned his bike and raised his hand for the car to stop. Instead it accelerated, overtook another car on the wrong side exiting the car-park, failed to stop and continued at speed.

Garda Kelly pursued it and saw the car stopped in traffic at the Ulster Bank. He said the car then turned right up Holborn Street going the wrong way up a one-way street.

Garda Kelly said he followed as close as he could on his bike and people standing on the footpath told him the car had shot across the road onto Holborn Hill where it was last seen continuing to Forthill. He said the roads were wet but the weather was clear on the day.

The defendant told the court that he wasn’t driving as he was in his mother’s house and because he had a bench warrant out for his arrest, he gave a Christopher Clancy the keys of his car to get him clothes from his apartment.

“I gave him the keys of my car, my wife at the time went with him and she came back in a panic saying he was driving on the wrong side of the road. I’m not pleading guilty to this charge as I genuinely didn’t do it, it wasn’t me,” he added.

He also told the judge that later that night Christopher Clancy drove all three of them to Belfast and after spending a week there he went to Derry.

“This happened in January and I was arrested in February and I’ve been in custody since.”

Inspector Paul Kilcoyne told the defendant that he didn’t have any evidence in court as both Christopher Clancy and Maria McCabe were not in court to give evidence.

Judge Kilrane said: “At this stage I will have to adjourn for a week if he feels he can advance his evidence. At the present time what convinces me is that the garda saw him twice entering and coming out of the car-park.

He drove past him and the garda knew him. Secondly, the defendant fled the jurisdiction that evening, he might say he left, but the car was hidden and that night moved across the border, which fits in with the guilt of the defendant, someone who leaves at night-time rather than helping his own case.

He went to ground. At the moment I don’t have a doubt,” adding Moran can call certain witnesses to be in the District Court on Thursday.