Man convicted for 'using car as a weapon'

A Dublin man who ran down an Arklow 21-year-old in his car who is the first person in Ireland to be convicted of murder using a motor vehicle as a weapon has been sentenced to eight years for related offences..

Anthony O’Reilly, aged 22, with an address at Cleggan Park, Ballyfermot, Dublin, was found guilty in April, of murdering Daniel McDonald, aged 21 on February 2 2007, after the jury deliberated for over seven hours. He has already received a mandatory life sentence for this charge.

During the trial the court heard the men had been fighting in Arklow’s Rascals Disco and after being thrown out the pair continued to trade abuse.

O’Reilly ran and jumped into the passenger seat of a black car driven by Jenny Tobin as Mr McDonald kicked him through the passenger window.

Mr McDonald’s foot got stuck and O’Reilly told Miss Tobin to “drive the f****n car.”

Mr McDonald fell free and Miss Tobin drove off with O’Reilly banging the dashboard and yelling abuse demanding to be taken to his friend’s house to get a shotgun.

Witnesses said O’Reilly had been acting like the antichrist outside Rascals threatening bouncers and others telling Mr McDonald he was dead.

As Miss Tobin drove back into the main street O’Reilly grabbed her steering wheel forcing her car in the direction of Mr McDonald who was standing near the footpath and just missing him.

Still fuming he saw his friend Keith Ennis driving his own red Honda Civic so he got out of Miss Tobin’s car and into his own flying down main street giving Mr McDonald and his friend the fingers as he passed.

Inspector Katherine Keogh told Mr Patrick Marinan SC, prosecuting, that Ms Tobin had suffered quite a lot from her involvement in the incident and was considering moving from the area as “there is a lot of feeling locally that in some way she was responsible.”

Mr Marinan told Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins that as he was driving O’Reilly mounted the pavement and bouncers at a nearby nightclub had to shout at patrons to get out of the way. One girl almost failed to do so in time.

O’Reilly then did a three point turn and came back up the street as Mr McDonald walked on to the road to meet him.

Some witnesses said Mr McDonald put his hands up in a gesture telling O’Reilly to stop, others said the gesture was more of a “come on” challenge.

Either way the court heard O’Reilly’s Honda was redlining in Mr McDonald’s direction.

When he mowed Mr McDonald down O’Reilly was in the wrong lane doing at least 50mph.

Mr McDonald was thrown 78 feet in the air on impact and thrown 32.8 metres down Arklow’s main street shattering his skull and tearing his brain tissue.

Mr Marinan, told Mr Justice O’Higgins that O’Reilly had a previous conviction for assault which he had received while on bail for murder.

Defence counsel Mr Pieter Le Vert BL, told Mr Justice O’Higgins that O’Reilly was the youngest of four children. He said both O’Reilly’s parents suffered from ill health but they had stood by their son to be best of their ability.

Speaking on behalf of Mr McDonald’s family, his cousin Ms Edwina Mythen, said Mr McDonald was “a good person” and “a son we adored beyond words, a son we expected to see get married and have children.”

She said the family “can’t and never will come to terms with losing” Mr McDonald and they were reminded of how he died on a daily basis as they walked past the spot where the accident happened.

She said they were broken as a family but hoped to find the strength to carry on in family and friends.

Passing sentence Mr Justice O’Higgins said that both secondary offences were at the more severe end of the scale. He sentenced O’Reilly to eight years for dangerous driving causing death and a further six years for reckless endangerment. Both sentences will run concurrently with the life sentence.

Speaking outside the Four Courts, Mr McDonald’s cousin, Lorraine Kenny said on behalf of the family. “Justice for our loving son Daniel has been done but it does not end here for us…we will carry the heartache, pain and flashbacks of that horrific day for the rest of our lives.”

“Anthony O’Reilly robbed our son of his life. Anthony O’Reilly did not know our son. How someone can carry out such a horrific crime is something we can never understand but we will not live our lives through bitterness and anger and we will not let Anthony O’Reilly destroy our lives.”

“Daniel was a proud, loyal young man and we will honour and respect Daniel’s memory.”

“Daniel went for a drink in his local and he never came home. We have asked ourselves over and over, why.”

“We ache to hold him, see him, hear him but we never will. Anthony O’Reilly took that away from us.”