Addict gets 20 months for fatal hit and run

An addict who was on his way to buy drugs when he fatally injured a 14-year-old boy in a hit and run has received a 20-month prison sentence.

When gardaí arrested Ruadhan Tracey, aged 33, two months after the incident he told them he knew it was because he had knocked the boy down, saying: “Conor Hickey, I will never forget that name.”

Tracey has 36 previous convictions. Last July Judge Mary Ellen Ring imposed a 10-year jail term, with two years suspended, for a spate of armed robberies, including one in which he left a shop worker in need of 24-hour care after stabbing him with a syringe.

These offences were carried out after the hit and run. The 20-month term will run alongside the 10-year sentence, meaning he will serve no extra time.

Tracey, of Lagore Green, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to careless driving causing the death of Conor Hickey at Fassaugh Road on December 2, 2011. He also admitted failing to remain at the scene of that accident.

Yesterday Judge Ring said she was bound by the legislation and she must give credit to Tracey for entering a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity and his genuine remorse expressed at a very early stage. “He has to live with the consequences of being a man who drove a vehicle which killed a boy.”

She imposed concurrent sentences of four months for the hit-and-run offence and 20 months for the careless driving causing death.

Tracey told gardaí after his arrest that he felt numb since he learned on the news that the boy died. He claimed the lights were green and said: “I took my eye off the road for one second and then bang. I saw a shadow. I didn’t think it was a person.” He looked back and saw the commotion on the road but didn’t stop because he had no insurance and tax.

He panicked but was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he hit the boy.

John Hickey said that his son’s death has hit the family like a tsunami and has left a trail of destruction.

Reading from a victim impact report from the family he said: “Before December 2011 life for my family was very different and as close to perfect as you could get. Conor was in second year preparing for his Junior Certificate.”

His mother Margaret Hickey said she feels a pain in her chest which no pills can cure.

Detective Garda John Brady told Pieter LeVert, prosecuting, that the victim had finished school that Friday and went straight to a local library to do his homework. He said that he went home at around four o’clock to eat his dinner and do his household chores before going out to meet up with friends.

A short time later his mother heard an ambulance and commented that she hoped no one would be getting a knock on their door. Shortly afterwards a neighbour called around and told her Conor had been hit. The family went to Temple Street Children’s Hospital where doctors told them he had suffered severe brain damage.

Mrs Hickey cried in court as Det Gda Brady said that the following day a brain scan revealed there was no brain activity. He said the family made the decision to turn off the life support system at 3.40pm on September 4. His parents asked for his organs to be donated.