Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
75MPH carnage
» Court told how two friends died in high-speed collision » Driver sorry & would give his life to ‘undo damage’
FIVE people were flung out of the boot of a car as it reached speeds of up to 75mph in a horrific road crash.
Two were killed instantly and another young woman was left in a wheelchair after the collision in Bundoran, Co Donegal, on August 19, 2018.
Joseph Gilroy, who was already disqualified from driving in Northern Ireland, appeared at Donegal Circuit Court for sentencing yesterday.
The 23-year-old pleaded guilty to a range of charges including dangerous driving causing death and serious injury and driving without a licence and insurance.
Friends Shiva Devine and Conall Mcaleer, both aged 20, died in the crash while another pal Rachel Elliott suffered life-changing injuries.
Ms Elliott appeared in court in a wheelchair.
Gilroy, from Lisnaskea in Co Fermanagh, wore a blue suit and was surrounded by family members.
He told the court: “I am deeply sorry and I would give my life to undo the damage if I could.”
Judge John Aylmer adjourned sentencing until April 20.
SOCIALISING
Garda Oliver Devanney outlined the horrific circumstances of the crash.
He told the court how the friends had been socialising in Fermanagh before travelling to Bundoran to attend a nightclub.
They left the premises and the six of them piled into the blue Peugeot 306 which travelled just 550 yards before it crashed at Single Street, East End, just after 3am.
Gilroy had taken over the duties of driving from Belleek to Bundoran from Conor Brennan who was the owner of the car.
Garda forensic evidence estimated the vehicle increased in speed as it travelled through a number of bends on a continuous white line before the driver lost control.
The car initially hit a kerb and went into a sideways movement, rotating before and after hitting a wall and then striking the corner of another building.
Five occupants, who were not wearing seatbelts, were thrown out of the boot after it was ripped off during the impact of the collision.
The front seat passenger remained in the car and was able to get out of the vehicle himself.
The engine was also dislodged and found elsewhere as was the car’s axle. Civilians rushed to the scene to help the injured.
Mr Mcaleer was pronounced dead while bystanders undertook CPR on Ms Devine for 15 minutes but she too died at the scene.
Gilroy fled before police w arrived and
hid in the vicinity of the Great Northern Hotel before phoning his father in Fermanagh.
His dad travelled to the scene and brought his son back to the location of the crash where he admitted being the driver of the Peugeot and was arrested.
The mothers of those killed in the crash read out heartbreaking victim impact statements.
While Ms Elliott, who was left in a wheelchair, said the accident had changed her life for ever.
She told the court she deals better with everyday situations but cannot switch off at night and that loneliness overcomes her. Ms Elliott added all those involved in the collision will live with a life sentence, describing it as a heartache that will never heal.
But she said she did not hold what happened to her against Gilroy, describing him as a “good-natured boy”.
Ms Devine’s mother Nicola said her life, her family’s lives and that of her daughter’s little boy Kyle will never be the same again.
She described Shiva as beautiful, funny and smart and added she could never have imagined her life without her. Ms Devine said she dreams she is with Shiva again but wakes up with tears running down her cheeks saying a mother’s broken heart never heals. Mr Mcaleer’s mother Jacqueline gave a heartbreaking victim impact statement about her only son.
Conall was an electrician but his passion was farming.
The court heard that on the day she last saw him he fixed her tumble dryer and levelled the stones in her street in time for his sister’s party.
FRIEND
She said he was not vain but so handsome and if you were a friend of his you had a friend for life.
She added: “I never got to remind him how proud I was of the young man he had become and what a great gift it was to have him as a son.”
Gilroy, fighting back tears, told the court how he wished he could turn back the clock on all that had happened.
In a statement read out by his barrister Colm Smyth, he said he wanted to apologise to everyone who was affected by his actions.
He added he asked himself every day why this was part of God’s plan and all that he remembers is being “sucked from the back of the car” and landing on his knees beside his friends who were all in the same place on the road.
A medical report on the defendant said he was attending counselling and suffered from anxiety, flashbacks, panic attacks, a pending sense of doom and that he keeps himself to himself.
His partner Lee Flanagan told the court she is pregnant and the couple are due their first child. She said she cannot imagine trying to cope without him in her life when the baby is born.