Man jailed for hijacking car with 3 children
During the ensuing garda operation, Noel Price drove at and tried to run down gardaí and was eventually forced to stop when armed members of the Regional Support Unit fired through the windscreen of the car.
Price, aged 33, of Kileely, Limerick, was jailed yesterday for five years at Limerick Circuit Court and banned from driving for 20 years.
The woman had set out from Watchhouse Cross in Limerick, on January 20, with six children, some of whom she had arranged to bring to a number of different schools. Roads were very dangerous due to ice. Three children had been left off to school when she stopped at a Centra shop at Old Cratloe Road shortly after 9am.
As she went into the shop, Price came to her car which had three children in it. He jabbed the girl aged 12 with a screwdiver in the back to force her from the car and a boy aged nine jumped from the car as it sped off.
The woman watched in horror as the car disappeared at speed with the child, aged 3, trapped in the back seat.
About a mile away, Price jammed on the brakes and threw the child from the car and left him on the side of the icy road. He then veered along narrow, icy roads as a major garda operation swung into action.
He was travelling so fast at one point all four wheels left the road as he went over a humpback bridge, narrowly missing parents and children entering a village school on the outskirts of the city.
Garda Neil O’Gorman told the court a number of gardaí were almost mown down by Price.
He eventually crashed to a halt when members of the Regional Support Unit opened fire hitting the windscreen of the car.
Price was arrested as he tried to run off. He was found to be wearing a bullet proof vest and was high on drugs and alcohol.
Judge Carroll Moran commended gardaí Eddie Ryan, Pat Brennan, James Bourke and Denis Counihan who, he said, risked their lives to bring Price’s escapade to a conclusion.
Judge Moran said it was one of the worst cases of its kind he had come across. He said Price inflicted the most appalling experience on the woman and the children with her.
Price pleaded guilty to six charges relating to the incident. He pleaded guilty to stealing the car from outside a shop at Woodview, Caherdavin, Limerick. Price also pleaded guilty to assaulting the woman, causing her harm. He also pleaded guilty to the false imprisonment of the child. Price had previous convictions, one for a fire-bomb attack.
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