‘I’ve been robbed of a future and so has my special girl’
Zoe Scannell of Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick, was killed in Roscarberry, Co Cork, on June 26 last year when 17-year-old Ian Lawlor O’Donovan lost control while driving his mother’s car shortly after a driving lesson.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed a two-year suspended jail sentence on Ian Lawlor O’Donovan, of The Grove, Ardagh East, Roscarberry, Co Cork, who is now 18 and studying for his Leaving Cert.
He pleaded guilty yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to a charge of dangerous driving causing death. He was also banned from driving for six years.
Garda Brendan Cahill said the eye witness evidence was that there was no excessive speed but that the teenager’s car went out of control and travelled broadside across to the incorrect side colliding with the car in which Alisha Scannell and her daughter were passengers. Zoe died instantly.
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“He may have become distracted, attempted to correct it but over-corrected and caused the car to go out of control and it crossed on to its incorrect side,” Garda Cahill said.
Alice Fawsett defence senior counsel said the defendant wanted for a long time to express his apologies in person to Ms Scannell and her family. He did so by arrangement with the gardaí before the sentencing hearing yesterday.
He wept and was visibly upset during Ms Scannell’s victim impact evidence and elsewhere during the hearing.
Judge Ó Donnabháin said the young driver’s remorse, not for himself but for the victim and her family, was genuine. Referring to how the accident happened the judge said: “This is why an inexperienced driver is required to have someone with a sounder head with them when driving.”
Alisha Scannell said: “Zoe’s pictures, trophies and awards are all I have left of my special girl. All memories are of how fulfilled my life was by one person and that is all I have now – memories, which a lot of the time are too painful to think about as it just reminds me of all I have lost.
“Zoe was bursting with energy for life. Taking it easy was not in her vocabulary and I often wonder deep down did she know she only had a short life to cram everything into.
“My Zozo and I were inseparable. We cuddled up in bed together every night while she got me to scratch her back or massage her feet. We’d snuggle on the couch watching TV – of course it always had to be her programmes. I’d go for a walk and she would have to come with me on her bike. We loved going shopping together and spent hours of time and money in the children’s section in Penney’s. She was my best friend and I was hers. Once we had each other nothing else mattered. We were the other half that made each other complete. She loved playing camogie, she’d get a slap of a hurley, shake it off and start laughing. Playing soccer she’d slip in the mud, jump straight back up and dive in for the next tackle, still smiling and laughing.
“Our life without Zoe now is empty. I don’t like falling asleep at night without her beside me. I hate waking up in the morning to the eerily quiet house.
“Anything that gives us a moment of joy now is clouded by the loss of our sweet angel. I have thought about suicide many times, so many it scares me. I eat only because I have to to survive, but food is tasteless now.
“I feel angry, confused, sad, betrayed, guilty and afraid, the list is endless. I also have guilt for surviving while Zoe’s life was ended so abruptly.
“I’ve been robbed of a future. More importantly, so has Zoe. Her dreams of becoming a teacher or hairdresser like me are gone. Her plans to be a mommy, gone. She had her future planned out and in the blink of an eye it was snapped away from her.”
Towards the end of the sentencing Judge Ó Donnabháin said to the deceased’s mother: “Zoe would not want you to remain hurt.”
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