Seven years for drunk-driver who killed four friends

A speeding drunk-driver who crashed his car, killing four young friends after a night out in the North, was jailed for seven years today.

Daniel McDonnell, 21, from Co Fermanagh, was also told to serve a year on probation and undertake alcohol management classes after his release.

Judge David McFarland, sentencing him at Dungannon Crown Court, said it was difficult to see McDonnell had shown any remorse over the death of his friends.

The court heard he had been caught speeding on the same stretch of road five months before the horrific crash in Co Fermanagh in July 2006 and again three months after the crash.

McDonnell, who changed his plea to guilty of causing death by dangerous driving just before his trial was due to begin, showed no emotion as sentence was passed.

The judge said: “It is difficult to see any evidence of real remorse on his behalf.”

He said he had received letters from the families and could not help but be moved by them.

He said: “The families have indicated no remorse has been shown or expressed directly or indirectly to them.”

The judge said that the parents of one of those who died had written to him about McDonnell saying: “He will serve whatever sentence he gets, we will serve our sentence for the rest of our lives.”

In the North new drivers are restricted to 45 miles an hour during their first year after passing the test.

The court heard that McDonnell, halfway through his year of restriction, was doing 55 miles an hour when he crashed.

He had five friends in the car, giving them a lift home after a night out - four died and one was seriously injured. The one who survived told police that he was aware of the driver having drunk about seven bottles of beer in the pub and nightclub they had been to before he crashed just after 3am on July 2, 2006.

Four friends sitting in the back seat – none wearing seatbelts – died instantly when McDonnell’s Honda Civic spun out of control on a bend and crashed into a tree.

It narrowly missed a taxi carrying four passengers going in the opposite direction.

After clambering from the wreckage the defendant told a police officer at the scene: “I have been drinking, I am drunk,” said prosecuting counsel Liam McColum QC.