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.