Man ‘accepts guilt’ after hit-and-run verdict
Shane Fitzgerald, of Knockeen, Meelin, Newmarket, Co Cork, has been given a six-and-a-half year sentence for dangerous driving causing the death of Paud O’Leary, a 42-year-old cyclist, almost three years ago.
Eighteen months of the sentence was suspended on his entering a bond to keep the peace for two years and he was disqualified from driving for 10 years.
Yesterday’s sentencing hearing at the Circuit Criminal Court, in Tralee, also heard of dramatic change on the part of the accused, who in a probation service report after the unanimous verdict, acknowledged his involvement and his culpability in causing the accident.
“He accepts now the cause of the accident lay with him,” said defence counsel Michael O’Higgins.
Inspector Feargal Foley, of Anglesea St, Cork, replying to Mr O’Higgins, told of observing the accused outside the courtroom immediately after the unanimous verdict was announced, on March 20 last, and of seeing a “total change” in his demeanor.
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While there was great relief and emotion in members extended O’Leary family, the accused was in a corner and he said he saw the change in him.
“I think the penny dropped,” said Insp Foley, a senior investigating officer in the case.
Before handing down sentence, Judge Thomas E O’Donnell said the probation service report was “very insightful”. During the trial, the accused seemed disconnected with what was happening around him and, having read the contents of the probation report, maybe there were underlying reasons for that, the judge said.
Fitzgerald was the driver of a grey Toyota land cruiser which collided with Mr O’Leary, a father-of-four, at Scrahanfadda, Gneeveguilla, Co Kerry, soon after 5am, on July 1, 2012.
Mr O’Leary, a farmer and a keen cyclist, had been training for the Ring of Kerry Charity Cycle. Fitzgerald did not remain at the scene and Mr O’Leary’s body was not recovered until eight hours later.
Fitzgerald’s movements while driving the vehicle in Newmarket, in Killarney, and on the homeward journey to Meelin, past the accident scene, were tracked on CCTV. He was also seen on CCTV having several drinks in licensed premises in Killarney; being drunk; and unsteadily making his way along the street as he went back to his vehicle, after 4.30am that morning.
Judge O’Donnell said the force of the impact “blew Mr O’Leary off the road” to the extent that that his body and his bike were found some distance behind a hedge, after a search.
Fitzgerald booked a ferry to Britain at 4.13am the following day, and obtained a visa to go to Australia. He worked in mines north of Perth; was traced by Australian police to a hostel; and later returned to Britain. However, he was arrested as he was about to board a flight at Heathrow and was extradited back to Ireland in March 2014 and charged.
Despite intensive Garda searches of farms, buildings and isolated areas, his land cruiser has not been found. Debris found at the accident scene matched the vehicle.
The State’s case against Fitzgerald was based largely on circumstantial evidence. There were 50 witnesses, including a member of the Australian federal police who interviewed him in Australia. More than 3.5 hours of silent CCTV footage, without commentary, was shown to the jury.
Mr O’Higgins told yesterday’s hearing that Fitzgerald was one of seven children and had left school at 13. without sitting any State exam. He was 20 at the time of the accident, was a hard worker and a “grafter”, but was immature for his age.
“There are 12-year-olds going on 20 and 20-year-olds going on 12. My client was of the latter. It was a circumstance where older and wiser counsel might have prevailed and influenced him, but that did not occur,” the senior counsel said.
It would be of higher value to everyone and himself had he come forward sooner, added Mr O’Higgins, who also said he had been instructed by his client to apologise on his behalf to Margaret O’Leary, widow of the deceased, and her extended family. He said there would be no appeal.
Commending the work by gardaíon the exceptional amount of police work carried out under Inspector Foley, Judge O’Donnell said the investigation had been local, national and international.
It had involved 480 different lines of inquiry and the elimination of 408 of the 409 grey Toyota land cruisers in the Cork-Kerry-Limerick region from the investigation.
Judge O’Donnell also noted that 830 hours of CCTV footage from 80 locations had to be scrutinised and reduced to 3.5 hours for the jury and he paid tribute to Sgt David Leslie for the manner in which he “harvested” the footage.
‘It’s hard to encourage forgiveness as the loss of Paud is too great’
Margaret O’Leary will never forget the cries of her children when she told them their father had been found dead in a ditch.
Suddenly and cruelly, life was turned upside down for her and Ross, then aged seven; Paudie, nine; Antonette, 12, and Shannon, 14.
“They all depended on him so much. He was the head of the family, the authority figure in the home. On 1st July, all that changed.”
Judge Thomas E O’Donnell described Ms O’Leary’s victim impact statement as one of the most powerful he had ever heard.
Weeping at times, she told a hushed courtroom Paud loved his children very much and had pet names for each one. He had taken up cycling when Antoinette, who has special needs, was born to honour not only Antoinette but every child born with a disability.
On the day he went to his final resting place, July 4, 2012, Antoinette turned 12.
He had a saying: “I’m like a father and mother to ye.” This was very true and to Margaret he would say: “You’ll miss me when I’m gone — I have you spoilt.”
Six months before his death, he left the family farm at Leamyglissane, Gneeveguilla, where he had worked all his life. But his plans for the farm never came to pass, his wife said. He never saw a pay cheque from it and he never got to buy a tractor or build sheds, as he had intended.
“I have lost my companion, my partner, the man I thought I would grow old with and the father of my four children,” Ms O’Leary went on, sitting in the witness box.
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At one stage, on seeing her become distressed, Judge O’Donnell asked her if she wanted a member of her family to come beside her, but she declined the offer and continued.
Nobody coming forward after the accident added tremendously to the pain and suffering of the family and all they ever wanted was the truth, she said.
“It would have been some small consolation if something good could have come out of Paud’s death. Paud had signed an organ donor card.
“It would have been a great source of comfort if Paud had been afforded [an opportunity] to help another in this way and to change life for the better. The fact he was left in a ditch for over eight hours meant that this was not to be.
“I have lost my companion, my partner, the man I thought I would grow old with and the father of my four children.In the interest of my children, we shall now be moving forward as a family of five. Paud O’Leary cannot and is not going to be replaced.
“It is hard to encourage forgiveness as the loss is too great, the tears of my children too hard to bear at times.
“We can all accept accidents do happen. We can never accept that at no point did anyone own up or admit to their involvement in the death of Paud,” she said.
Judge O’Donnell, who said Ms O’Leary had read her statement with great courage and resolve, also paid tribute to members of the extended O’Leary family, who attended the trial each day, for the dignity they had shown through such a difficult time.
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