Man who rammed patrol car jailed for six years
One of the gardaí is still on sick leave, more than two years after she was thrown violently around the car in the collision on Blackditch Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin, on Halloween night 2011.
John Cully, aged 42, of Pleasant St, Dublin 8, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to endangerment on October 31, 2011.
He also pleaded guilty to using a stolen car and to driving on the footpath in a manner likely to endanger the public on June 17, 2012, at Parkwest Avenue in Dublin 12.
His co-accused, Glenn Lyons, aged 28, who was a passenger in the car, was earlier sentenced to three years with the final 18 months suspended.
Judge Mary Ellen Ring sentenced Cully to four years in jail for the first offence and four years consecutively for the second, with the last two years suspended. She also disqualified him from driving for eight years.
The court heard that Cully had been on bail for the first offence when he committed the second offence. He has 41 previous convictions, including 14 for road traffic offences and 10 for the unlawful taking of vehicles.
He also received a 10-year sentence for robbery.
Garda Dave Connolly told Derek Cooney, prosecuting, that he had been a passenger in a patrol car driven by his colleague, Garda Sinead Connolly, on the night of October 31, 2011.
Garda Connolly saw an English-registered 4x4 approaching which suddenly swerved, driving directly at their patrol car. Garda Connolly tried to accelerate out of the pathway of the Mitsubishi Pajero.
Both gardaí were thrown violently around the car and showered with glass from the driver’s window.
Cully later admitted he had been drinking and told gardaí he had been going through “a rough time” since he found his wife dead in June 2011.
Judge Ring directed Cully to comply with all drug treatment and rehabilitation programmes as advised by the probation and welfare services.
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