Retired garda couldn't remember fatal drink-drive crash

A retired Garda detective who knocked down two teenage girls and killed a 71-year-old man while drink-driving has no memory of the events, a court heard today.

Frank Hayes, 53, from Glengara Park, Dun Laoghaire in Dublin, was driving home after a golf tournament on July 24 last year when he hit two teenage girls and seriously injured them.

He then drove off at speed and was involved in a collision five minutes later with a Mercedes car which led to the death of its 71-year-old driver.

At the sentencing hearing in the Circuit Criminal Court today, barrister Aileen Donnelly said her client had no memory of the events on the night.

“No doubt the consequences have been serious. Obviously he’s aware that nothing he can say will alter that. He can only repeat he is very sorry for what has happened,” she said.

Hayes has pleaded guilty to one charge of dangerous driving causing death, three charges of dangerous driving causing injury, as well as charges of driving while intoxicated and failing to stop at the scene of an accident.

The court heard that Hayes had been drinking after a golf tournament at Stackstown Golf Club in Rathfarnham on July 24 last year. On his way home, he struck two teenage girls, Natalie Woods, 17, and Edel Halligan, 19, on the Blackglen Road in Sandyford at 12.45am, just minutes after they had left a friend’s 21st birthday party.

Both women were thrown into the air by the impact with his Mercedes and received serious injuries.

Natalie Woods, who was left in a coma for several weeks, took to the stand to read out a two-page victim impact statement.

“I’m still experiencing severe headaches, stress, confusion with bad short-term memory,” she said.

She had to undergo several operations for serious head injuries but found that her eye was facing in the wrong direction afterwards and that she was dribbling and drooling.

It’s like I had two different faces and made me two different persons,” she said.

“Writing your name brushing your teeth, feeding yourself, all these things have to be re-learned.”

Detective Sergeant Sean Campbell of Blackrock Garda station said that after Hayes struck the girls, he drove off and was pursued by another driver, David Kilroy.

He caught up to him at the Lamb’s Cross junction and shouted at him to stop, while his passenger got out to take down the registration number.

Hayes who was by then looking panicked and shocked, drove through the set of red lights in the direction of Stepaside village.

But his car went out of control, crashed into a wall and veered straight into the path of a Mercedes coming in the opposition direction.

Its driver, Gordon Geary, 71, had a mild heart condition and even though he got out of the car without any obvious injuries, the the force of the impact on his chest caused him to have a fatal heart attack.

His wife, Joy, who he had been married to for 46 years, broke her two legs, a hip and an arm.

Mrs Geary, who was present in court with two walking sticks, was in hospital for nearly five months and had to attend her husband’s funeral on a stretcher.

Detective Sergeant Campbell said civilian witnesses saw Hayes trying to walk away from the accident and notified a female garda at the scene.

She arrested him on suspicion of drink driving due to the fact he had bloodshot eyes, was unsteady on his feet and smelled of alcohol.

He was fond to have 84 milligrams of alcohol per 100 mili-litres, two and a half times the legal limit of 35 mg per 100ml.

He initially told gardai he did not remember what had happened but said it wasn’t his fault because three men were in a car trying to drive him off the road.

But when he was offered a lift home, he said: “I deserve it. If I did what I did, if someone is dead, I’ll walk home, I deserve it.”

Detective Sergeant Campbell said Hayes had one previous conviction for having a defective brake in 1986 in an accident. He had apparently left the scene before presenting himself at Swords Garda station half an hour later.

The court heard that Hayes had separated from his wife around 20 years ago and had raised their four children. He had served almost all of his 30-year garda career as a detective in the Special Branch before retiring in 2003 to become a taxi driver.

Ms Donnelly said he had been commended for exemplary service in the force.

“I accept it is tempting in a case such as this to say this person was a guard and he should have known better. I think Mr Hayes is acutely aware of that and he berates himself for that.”

She said he had shown genuine remorse for what he had did and had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Judge Desmond Hogan said he was not in a position to impose a sentence without considering his notes and the victim impact reports.

He adjourned the sentencing hearing until January 23.

The offence of dangerous driving causing death carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.