Men in custody after high-speed car chase

FOUR men have been remanded in custody after they were charged yesterday in connection with a high-speed car chase across two counties.

The men were arrested just after 5pm on Saturday night after gardaí surrounded and stopped the stolen car just outside Mallow in north Cork. It had been stolen from the Rochestown area of the city earlier.

Up to 20 gardaí, from Charleville, Mallow, Bruff and Limerick city, had been monitoring the pursuit for over an hour.

The four were brought to Mallow Garda Station for questioning and they appeared before Judge Olann Kelleher at a special sitting of Mallow District Court yesterday morning.

Tim Dennehy, aged 26, from 25 Cathedral Avenue, off Shandon Street, Cork; Donal Heaphy, aged 21, from 5 Peacock Row, North Monastery Road, Cork; and Raymond O’Sullivan, aged 34, from apartment 2, Knockree House, St Clare’s Avenue, Cork, were each charged with allowing themselves to be carried in a stolen vehicle.

Darren O’Hara, aged 22, from 9 Moylan’s Lane, off Dominic Street, Cork, was charged with five counts of dangerous driving at various locations in Charleville, Mallow and Buttevant. He was also charged with using the vehicle without the consent of the owner at a location in Mallow.

Solicitor Diarmuid Kelleher applied for bail for O’Hara. However, Inspector Senan Ryan objected on the grounds of the seriousness of the alleged offences, and given the fact that the alleged incidents took place over an hour, and over two counties.

Insp Ryan told Judge Kelleher that the stolen car was first spotted by gardaí at O’Rourke’s Cross in Charleville, before it did a u-turn and turned back towards Cork.

He alleged that it then travelled through Killmalock, driving the wrong way up a one-way street, on to Rocksboro in Limerick where a patrol car was rammed, and back on to the dual carriageway towards Charleville.

Insp Ryan said the driver of the vehicle had ample opportunity to stop but failed.

Gardaí deployed a stinger device near the graveyard on the outskirts of Charleville and Insp Ryan alleged the vehicle mounted a footpath to avoid the spikes. He told the judge that the vehicle continued at high-speed towards Newtwopothouse before gardaí managed to surround it near Keary’s Garage at Mallow. The vehicle is being forensically examined.

Judge Kelleher refused the bail application for O’Hara and the other defendants then withdrew their applications for bail.

He remanded all four in custody to Cork Prison to appear before Mallow District Court again tomorrow.