Traveller boy chased to his death, says father

AN 11-year-old boy was fatally wounded after he was chased straight out in front of a car because he was a member of the Travelling Community, his father claimed last night.

Daniel Maughan died from severe head injuries in Beaumont Hospital on February 19, 2004 almost a month after he cycled out in front of a car on the Rathbeale Road in Swords, Co Dublin.

His father, Gerard Maughan, claimed another boy, Danny Cogley, was chasing his son on his bicycle at the time.

“Danny (Maughan) would not just run out in front of a car unless he was being chased,” he said.

Mr Maughan told the inquest: “I was told my son was being chased from Mooretown because he was a Traveller.”

Another boy, Philip Sheridan, who was playing with the group of teenagers before the accident took place, said Danny Cogley was chasing the 11-year-old “in a friendly way”, and they were just playing.

The court heard that Daniel, who was from Abbeylea Drive in Swords, came out of the Mooretown estate with a group of young boys and cycled straight off the pavement and onto the road in front of a car on January 13, 2004.

Mr Maughan said he had to sit in Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital for almost 40 days as his son deteriorated.

He said most of the young teenagers who had been playing with Daniel at the time of the accident had not bothered to visit him.

Daniel Cogley, who was 15 at the time of the incident, said he had not been chasing the boy. He said they were “just messing around with bikes.” He told the court he was several yards behind the 11-year-old when he suddenly cycled down the bank onto the road.

A statement from another teenager, Kevin Gilsenan, who was playing with the group, said that Daniel and Danny Cogley were chasing into each other “like Robot Wars” on their bicycles.

Garda Finbarr McQuaile, the investigating officer, told the court that there was no evidence that Daniel was being chased when he cycled in front of the car.

“All the people there at that time were friends and play together,” he said.

However, Mr Maughan claimed there was an argument between the boys from the Abbeylea estates and the Mooretown estates, where Daniel was playing at the time of the incident.

The driver of the car, Barbara Kelly, said at around 6.25pm as she drove along the Rathbeale Road she noticed the children come out of the estate.

She said they were ahead of her on the footpath when Daniel suddenly turned and cycled down the grassy slope without looking and went straight out in front of her.

Coroner Dr Brian Farrell said: “I am cognisant of the family’s concerns that he was being chased but there isn’t any objective evidence he was being chased.”

The court passed a verdict of accidental death.