Drunk driver appeals severity of 12-year sentence

A drunk driver who was pursued “from one end of Cork to another” in a stolen van before “deliberately” driving at a stationary garda motorcyclist has moved to appeal his 12-year sentence.

John Paul O’Driscoll, aged 29, a native of Fairhill but with an address at the Simon Community, had pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to 17 charges including burglary, unlawful taking of a van, reckless endangerment, and criminal damage at various locations around Cork in April, 2013.

O’Driscoll, who has 168 previous convictions, was disqualified from driving at the time. During the pursuit, he rammed vehicles and drove the wrong way down a one-way street as well as a dual carriageway before hitting Garda Michael Twomey, throwing him from his motorbike for “a considerable distance”.

He was given consecutive sentences totalling 12 years imprisonment but when Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin indicated that he would suspend the final two years, O’Driscoll shouted from the dock that he could “fuck off”.

Opening an appeal against sentence yesterday, his barrister, Elizabeth O’Connell, said the circuit court judge erred in imposing consecutive terms and not enough credit was given for the guilty plea.

Reserving judgment, Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan, who sat with Mr Justice Alan Mahon and Mr Justice John Edwards, said the court hoped to give a decision within a month.