Cyclist’s death: ‘I just could not believe it... it was horrendous’

The widow of a 42-year-old hit-and-run accident victim has told how she heard the news of his death after his body had been found a short distance from their home.

As a search was taking place, Margaret O’Leary was at home with her brother-in-law when he received a phone call that the body had been discovered in a roadside ditch, less than 2km away.

She was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of Shane Fitzgerald, aged 22, of Upper Knockeen, Knockduff, Meelin, Newmarket, Co Cork, who has pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Paud O’Leary, at Scrahanfadda, Gneeveguilla, Co Kerry, on July 1, 2012.

A search was organised after the father of four and school caretaker/farmer had not returned from an early morning training spin for the Ring of Kerry Charity Cycle.

Ms O’Leary said when the phone call came to Aeneas O’Leary, a brother of the deceased, all she could hear was that he was dead.

She then went to the scene, arriving there with her daughter, Shannon, before the gardaí. She remained on the road and did not see the body. Shannon became very distressed and was held back, she said.

Ms O’Leary was visibly upset when she told the Circuit Criminal Court, in Tralee, she knew he was dead, but could not go down to him. “I just could not believe it… it was horrendous.’’

She recalled how Paud had been working in the garden the previous day. She washed his cycle gear and it was usual for him to go cycling in the morning.

Paud O’Leary: Killed while training

for a charity cycle event.

She said he was very close to their second daughter, Antoinette, who has Down syndrome, and always put her to bed at night. He usually got up at around 5am to go cycling and always wore a yellow cycling jacket

He went to bed about 10pm, the previous evening, and she did not hear him getting out of the bed the following morning. She got up around 9am, prepared to go to Mass and was not overly worried when he had not returned.

She went to Mass at 10.15am with Antoinette and afterwards became concerned when he was not back home, as he always took his two boys to football training on Sunday mornings and would not miss that.

Ms O’Leary felt there was “something wrong’’ and made phone calls to family members. She phoned the gardaí in Killarney at 11.45am. A search was then organised with other family members. At 1.15pm, Paud’s sister-in-law phoned Aeneas O’Leary saying he was dead and she and family members went to the scene.

Jerry O’Callaghan, a brother-in-law of the deceased, told of finding the body after he came upon debris and broken glass on the left side of road at Scrahanfadda, as he drove towards Killarney.

There was also a bag on the hedge. A phone in the bag began to ring. He did not answer it, but put it into his pocket and later gave it to the gardaí. And, even though he did not see the body at that stage, he knew it was there.

Mr O’Callaghan said he made a gap in the hedge and was the first to go through it. He saw Paud in a leaning position against a raised area with the bicycle on top of him. He checked for pulse and found none.

Mr O’Callaghan also said that on the evening of July 2, as a hearse brought the remains of Mr O’Leary to the family home at Leamyglissane, Gneeveguilla, he saw a part of a bumper in a hedge near a bridge close by and gave it to the gardaí. The hedge had been clipped back earlier that day by council workers and the bumper section was about a metre over the ground, he added.

The court also heard garda evidence of another section of a bumper being found closer to the accident scene. Both items and Mr O’Leary’s bag were presented as exhibits in court.

In a statement, Dr Uwe Hild told of going to the scene, on July 1, and of finding the body wedged in bushes, three metres off the road. He looked for a pulse and did not find any. The distance of the body from the road and its depth in the bushes would indicate a major impact. He felt Mr O’Leary was probably dead for more than two hours.

Witnesses gave evidence of passing the scene at 5.25am and 6.30am and of seeing a mirror, bits of glass and other grey-coloured debris on the road.

The case continues before Judge Thomas E O’Donnell and a jury.