Ill crash victim avoids prison for assault

A WOMAN who suffered horrific injuries in a fatal road crash has been given a suspended jail sentence for an assault in a pub.

Rachel Elliott is seriously ill in Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital following last month’s smash which killed two passengers.

The mother of one has recently been told by doctors she may never walk again. At Enniskillen Magistrates Court, in her absence, the 25-year-old was jailed for five months, suspended for two years.

She was also ordered to pay £250 compensation to the victim.

Elliott pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm to the woman on April 9.

She appeared before the court last month when the case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports. However, within days she was injured in the crash in Bundoran, Co Donegal, when she was thrown from the back window of the vehicle, damaging her brain, back and pelvis.

Two other young people aged 20 – Shiva Devine, from Belleek, and Conall Mcaleer, of Boa Island, Co Fermanagh – died when the vehicle collided with a wall.

The court heard Elliott approached Hannah Abercrombie in a pub in Enniskillen, punched her and then pulled out tufts of her hair before she was restrained by bouncers.

Elliott, of Rehal Road, Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh, told officers when questioned the victim had initially hit her.

Her solicitor said his client had posted a message on Facebook on August 1 showing her remorse for the incident.

INJURED Rachel Elliott