GAA doctor’s wife kept carjacking incident from him

The wife of the Donegal GAA team doctor did not tell him she had been involved in a carjacking incident until after a vital game at Croke Park.

Bernadette Moran was left shocked when a man pulled her from her 4x4 in Dublin with her 9-year-old child in the back seat.

Ms Moran, 37, the wife of Dr Kevin Moran, was with her three children just hours before the Donegal team’s All-Ireland quarter final game against Kerry on Aug 5, 2012.

Ms Moran, from Letterkenny, pulled up outside a park at Mountjoy Square to allow her children to put litter into a bin.

As they did so, Christopher Coakley pulled her out and tried to drive away.

However, the handbrake was on and Ms Moran had enough time to get her child from the back seat.

Coakley drove off but crashed the car a short time later before running off.

Ms Moran revealed that she decided not to tell her husband about her family’s ordeal until after the massive GAA game.

“I decided not to tell him because there was no point. He had enough to be going on with and we were safe and the gardaí were looking after us very well.

“It had been terrifying, more so because of what could have happened. Thankfully, we were safe at that stage.

“My husband called me and asked me if everything was okay before the game, as if he sensed something.

“I told him everything was fine and wished him well in the game. I told him afterwards and, thankfully, the result was right and we won the game and everyone was okay.”

Coakley, aged 21, of Belvedere Place, who had 92 previous convictions, appeared at the Central Criminal Court before Judge Desmond Hogan.

He pleaded guilty to hijacking Ms Moran’s 4x4 and was sentenced to three years in prison to serve concurrently with a three-year sentence he is already serving for a firearms offence.

Ms Moran said she holds no bad feeling towards Coakley and hopes he manages to turn his life around.

“I have no bad feeling towards him. I don’t really mind that he is not going to serve any more time in prison because he is already facing enough problems.

“When I had to identify him he was shaking and I felt pity for him. That was ironic. I just hope he manages to turn his life around now. You can make as much or as little out of something as you want and we as a family decided to make little out of it.

“Crime happens all the time and it was just our turn that day.”