Murder trial accused jailed on driving charges

A 20-year-old Limerick man who crashed a car while trying to evade Gardaí was today sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.

Liam Keane, from Singland Gardens, Ballysimon, came to national attention three years ago when he gave the V sign to photographers after a collapsed murder trial.

The Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin heard that Keane had been spotted breaking a red light while driving on O’Connell Street in Dublin on January 16 last year.

He was pursued by a patrol car in a high speed chase until he crashed his car at Mountjoy Square.

Garda Eamon Roarty told the court that Keane had pleaded guilty to charges of reckless endangerment, drunk driving, dangerous driving and driving without insurance.

Judge Catherine Delahunt told Keane while she was taking account of this, and his problems with alcohol, he should have known the consequences of his actions as a person with 24 previous convictions for road traffic offences.

“You proceeded to wreak havoc on the roads and in particular on Mountjoy Square, where you put people in fear of their lives,” she said.

She sentenced Keane to 18 months imprisonment for reckless endangerment, fined him €1,000 for drink driving and disqualified him from driving for five years.

On the charge of driving without insurance, Judge Delahunt noted that Keane had been disqualified from driving at the time due to a previous conviction for the same offence.

She disqualified him from driving for four years and imposed a six month sentence of imprisonment to run concurrently.

Judge Delahunt said Keane had tried to avoid the gardaí in the most reckless of fashions and had also put his passengers at risk.

Keane, who was dressed in a white ’Tommy Sport’ top and black jeans, took a swig from his bottle of water while a Garda handcuffed him in the wake of the verdict.

The court heard from his counsel, Sean Gillane, that he had left school early and had had problems with alcohol.

“He’s not someone who’s untouched by the criminal justice system, nor someone who the criminal justice system is unaware of,” he said.

He told Judge Delahunt that Keane wished to be a full time father to the young child his partner had recently given birth to.

“He’s still a very young person. His future is not without hope. He’s aware he has difficulties with alcohol.”

In 2003, Liam Keane dramatically walked free from a murder trial at the Central Criminal Court.

The case collapsed when several prosecution witnesses denied making statements to gardaí identifying Liam Keane as the killer of 19-year-old Eric Leamy.

Keane had denied the murder at Lee Estate, Limerick, in August 2001.