Accountant gets suspended sentence for running over trainee nurse

A Wicklow accountant who ran over a trainee nurse with his Jeep in Dublin City Centre has received an 18-month suspended sentence and a four-year driving ban.

Adrian O’Lionscaigh (aged 34) told gardaí he’d swerved to avoid something on his vehicle’s left hand side when he felt a soft bang as the cyclist, David Gilligan, and his bike went underneath.

O’Lionscaigh, of Connolly Street, Arklow, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to dangerous driving causing Mr Gilligan serious harm at Abbey Street Upper on February 18, 2012. He has no previous convictions.

Garda Jason Walsh revealed that the cyclist will never run again because of the leg injuries he sustained in the accident.

The garda told Shane Costelloe BL, prosecuting, that Mr Gilligan, who is now a fully qualified nurse, suffered post traumatic stress and felt the incident had affected his career, relationships and sporting life. He was out of pocket €8,000, but sustained no long-term brain injuries.

O’Lionscaigh, who has his own accountancy firm, was visibly “shook up” at the scene and rang gardai later on that evening to enquire after the victim.

Gda Walsh said Mr Gilligan wished O’Lionscaigh well in his victim impact statement referred to in court.

Gda Walsh told Mr Costelloe that he came upon the accident when he saw a large crowd gathered near the Abbey Street and Wolfe Tone Street at about 3.30pm.

He said good quality CCTV footage matched O’Lionscaigh’s story about swerving before the collision.

He agreed with David Staunton BL, defending, that O’Lionscaigh had been driving slowly and his vehicle was fully insured and in good condition.

Mr Staunton submitted to Judge Mary Ellen Ring that this case did not have the usual attributing factors of intoxication or lack of insurance, but that it was a “momentary lapse of concentration that clearly caused this accident.”

He added that the insurance company had made payment arrangements following the collision.

He handed in a letter from a Shelton Abbey prison inmate whom O’Lionscaigh is helping rehabilitate back into society through workshops and casual employment and asked the judge to be lenient in sentencing.

Judge Ring said she didn’t see the purpose of imposing a jail term or fine in this matter, but made it a condition of the suspended sentence that O’Lionscaigh pays €1,000 to a charity dealing with head injuries in the next 12 months.