Addict who knocked down and killed midwife jailed

A drug addict who knocked down and killed a mother of four while she was shopping with her sister has received a three and a half year sentence and a 30-year driving ban.

Philip Trimble, aged 35, told gardaí he wished it was him who had died and not the victim. He took to the stand at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to express his remorse to the family.

Trimble, of Oscar Traynor Rd, Santry, Dublin, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Coombe midwife Frances McCarthy, aged 56, on Middle Abbey St, Dublin, on January 11, 2013.

He also pleaded guilty to driving with no insurance and failing to comply with road markings on the same date. He has 12 previous convictions for drugs offences and burglary.

Judge Mary Ellen Ring expressed her condolences to the deceased’s family, noting that Ms McCarthy “seems to have been an extraordinary woman”.

A specialised unit in the Coombe where Ms McCarthy had worked has been named after her.

At the sentence hearing, Ms McCarthy’s husband Denis described in a victim impact statement, read on his behalf, how life as he knew it “came to a sudden end” when his wife of 27 years was killed.

Her final text to him had been: “What would I do without you?”

Judge Ring suspended the final 12 months of the sentence for 12 months.