Judge: ‘Young drivers must read this’

Heartbroken mother Margaret Sheehan yesterday poured the anguish of a lost son into a powerful victim impact statement at Cork Circuit Criminal Court...

“There are places and moments in time that we all for one reason or another will never forget. Aug 29, 2010, is one such day. Standing in the morgue in Cork City that morning the situation became a reality: The words and whispers that had been following us around for the past hours became real. Our beautiful son Keith, brother, uncle, was gone from us. Lying still, cold and lifeless in front of us, covered in a single white sheet, he lay silent — in a world completely at odds with the one his family stood in.

“Six confused, angry and shocked members of his immediate family left the morgue that day consumed with the guilt of having to leave him behind all alone — but each of us knew that there was no other way. Our lives had been turned upside down forever.

“At 8.30am that morning two gardaí stood in front of us, mouths pouring words that are more than any parent or sibling could ever bear. Keith was involved in a car accident. It was fatal; Keith was gone now, his life taken from us forever.

“The facts were laid out in front of us, but it was news that we his parents, his only sister Aoife, his brothers Colin and DJ and his little nephew Dylan, just could not begin to comprehend. How could such a thing happen to Keith? To us? Shocked and numbed by the news all we could hope for is that the world would stop.

“How could everything carry on as normal? How could daily life go on around us, when our world is in such agony? How could it have come to this, when just hours before Keith sat in our kitchen his father cut his hair? How can that same young man who left the house wide eyed with enthusiasm for the night ahead, now be lying lifeless in the morgue?

“As he left that night, how could we ever have known that it was the last time we would see him alive or hear him talk — how would we cope without him? How could we not be with him as he took his last breath — deprived of the privilege of saying ‘goodbye’. He had been robbed of a life yet to be lived, our youngest child was gone forever, flicked out like a light.

“Almost all young men feel like they are invincible and as a parent there is nothing more you can do but want to believe it. Nothing could ever prepare us for the nightmare that we were about to wake up to — the cruel and senseless manner in which his precious life was snatched from him.

“If there was one thing he was certain of that was his future — his future as a skilled and talented young carpenter. Making no qualms of his lack of interest in academics, he immersed himself in his craft, loving every minute of the almost four years he had spent perfecting his trade. Unfortunately that fourth and final year would never reach its conclusion. Working with a local building contractor, his face was a constant presence at home, popping in for his 10 o’clock tea break and again for lunch at one. Of course we would never again sit around the table at dinner time as a complete family. That privilege was gone.

“July 2010 saw the arrival of his most prized possession — his ’94 Honda Civic, he purchased with his loan from the local credit union. The car was almost an extension of himself and he would spend hours proudly washing, polishing and vacuuming it every Saturday.

“Keith was a true character, a ‘live wire’ — he loved life and lived every minute of it with a smile on his face. Evenings at home were spent reeling in laughter at the antics of The Simpsons, which would generally be followed by an episode or two of Father Ted. Having slept in the bedroom next to us, hearing his hearty laugh through the walls became a nightly feature and now just passing that empty room breaks our hearts. But Keith’s family didn’t end in the home, his extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmother, have all had to come to terms with the loss of such a lively relative.

“As hard as it is for us, his army of friends has had to deal with another kind of pain — the loss of a peer, schoolmate and ultimately a valued friend — one who was always just a phone call away. Not one for mincing his words, Keith was well known for his wit and his presence is missed from every room he’s not in. He seemed to spring from the small fair-haired boy to the tall, strong and handsome young man almost overnight. A young man who had so much left to live for and so many dreams left unfulfilled.

“Leaving the morgue that day, almost 18 months ago, it was almost impossible to believe that life could go on. United as a family in grief, we tackled the dark days following his funeral together. As time has gone by, some of those days have got brighter, but our suffering is far from over — as many a day has been just as black as those following his funeral and many sleepless nights full of memories, silence and tears.

“Our mourning will never have a defined period. He is in our thoughts, memories and prayers every day.

“Having faced the fear of having to place our youngest child to rest, we are now faced with the ongoing torture that he will be forgotten: just another statistic, just another gravestone. We are lucky that we have such towers of strength around us — committed to preserving his memory, our shared love for him and our desire to have him back, ensure that he will never leave and his spirit will live on.

“All we can ask is for society and the rule of law to acknowledge our suffering and the loss that we struggle to cope with every day.”