Drunk driver sentenced to 18 months after tragic crash

A drunk driver who broke a red light and smashed into another car leaving a Zimbabwean refugee needing 24-hour supervision for the rest of her life has been jailed for 18 months by Judge Michael White at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Faye Sherlock, a single mother, had no insurance and was more than three times the legal drink limit when she crashed into the car causing Yvonne Nutuhle to be flung out the rear side window and end up 26 feet away on the opposite side of a dual carriageway at Blackrock in August 2002.

The 23-year-old, who was an asylum seeker at the time but has since been granted refugee status, remains in hospital to this day after she suffered severe brain injuries in the accident. According to medical reports, she will require 24-hour supervision for the rest of her life.

Sherlock (aged 24), originally from Highland Grove, The Park, Cabinteely, but now living in Bray, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to Ms Nutuhle and drink driving on August 31, 2002. A count of having no insurance was taken into consideration.

Judge White disqualified Sherlock from driving for 10 years but ordered that the prison warrant not be issued until August 3 so she could make arrangements surrounding her seven-year-old son, who the court was told has behavioral difficulties.

He said: "This was a a seriously aggravating case of dangerous driving and despite the defence’s long plea for a non-custodial sentence the court must impose a custodial sentence. The medical reports on Ms Nutuhle make for very sad reading.

"The sentence would be far greater but for the difficulties surrounding Ms Sherlock’s son, such is the seriousness with which I regard this case. The aggravating factors far outweigh the mitigating circumstances and the sentence of the court will still be a significant one."

Sergeant John Burke told Mr Colm O Briain BL, prosecuting, that some witnesses described Sherlock’s Daihatsu Charade driving erratically along Carysfort Avenue at 2am just before the accident at the junction of Frascati Road after she had left a pub in Dalkey.

As she approached the lights, which witnesses claimed were red, she kept driving and crashed straight into the Fiat Cinquecento, containing Ms Nutuhle and two Nigerian friends. Investigators also discovered that Sherlock would have been driving over the 30 mph speed limit at the time.

Ms Nutuhle spent some weeks in St Vincent’s Hospital before being moved to Beaumont. She was later transferred to the National Rehabilitation Hospital before returning to St Vincent’s and was currently a patient in St Luke’s Hospital.

Doctors have reported that she has a limited understanding of her difficulties and it is hoped that she will one day be able to walk with the assistance of just one person. She would need 24-hour supervision for the rest of her life.

Sgt Burke agreed with Mr Adrian Mannering SC, for Sherlock, that she was the victim of a sexual assault by a very close friend three months before the accident. She had not told any of her friends but on the night a friend of the offender had joined their group in the pub and told everybody about the incident.

Sherlock had planned to stay in a friend’s house that night and not drive but she stormed out to her car after this incident in the pub took place.

Gda Derek Maguire told the court that the person involved in the sexual assault had since pleaded guilty to that offence in the District Court and was given the Probation Act and ordered to pay €1,600 euro in compensation.

Mr Mannering told the court that after the incident in the pub Sherlock " just snapped" and drove when she was in no fit state to do so. Her son, who was emotionally disturbed, would be put into foster care if she was jailed.

He said: "There is another life involved in this wretched case. The court must take into account that this will be a consequential hardship."

Sherlock had written a letter to the Nutuhle family to express her total remorse at what had occurred and said it would be with her for the rest of her life.