Threat to kill garda during 10km car chase

Man said he’d bomb Kinsale so ‘there would be no Americans left’

A man sped away from gardaí for more than 10km, at one point performing a handbrake turn in the middle of the road and mounting the ditch to narrowly avoid pedestrians, it has emerged.

Roy Fehilly of Nohoval, Co Cork, was under the influence of cannabis as he evaded gardaí on the morning of August 28, during which time he also threatened to kill gardaí and to bomb the town of Kinsale. Yesterday he was jailed for the offences, and banned from driving.

Sergeant Brian Harte told Bandon District Court that a garda was conducting speed checks near Belgooly at 9.50am that morning when a silver Opel Corsa approached at 84km/h in a 50km/h zone.

The garda had followed the car for more than 2km in an effort to get it to stop when Mr Fehilly performed a handbrake turn, stopped the car, and rolled down the windows to shout abuse at gardaí.

Sgt Harte said that Fehilly, who is in his 20s, flicked a ‘V’ gesture and took off at speed, later taking a sharp bend at speed and narrowly missing colliding into a tractor, a car, and two people walking on the road.

“He mounted the ditch to get past them,” Sgt Harte told Judge James McNulty.

Fehilly also drove at speed over a loose gravel surface while continuing to make hand gestures at the garda, and almost losing control at the approach to a beach at Oysterhaven.

Another garda joined the operation in a separate vehicle and Fehilly pulled up sharply at a house in Nohoval which turned out to be his home, before trying to run inside, only to be stopped by the two officers.

At that point, he had driven for over 10km since the point where the garda first tried to stop him.

Sgt Harte said Fehilly then threatened to kill the gardaí, adding:

“I can build a pipe bomb in 12 minutes.”

He said he would bomb Kinsale so that “there would be no Americans left” and said:

“This place needs a good bombing.”

Fehilly was extremely volatile when arrested. Urine analysis later showed he tested positive for cannabis.

The court heard he had nine previous convictions, including five for misuse of drugs and four for road traffic, including convictions for careless driving. He had been arrested on foot of a bench warrant.

His solicitor, Diarmuid O’Shea, said his client had serious psychiatric depression and took cannabis, sometimes alongside prescribed medication.

He said his parents wanted to send him to a Priory Group facility in Glasgow and that this was “a crossroads” for all of them.

Judge McNulty said Fehilly was another young man “who has probably cooked his brains with cannabis” to the point of psychosis, but added that the most serious element was the risk now posed to others.

“He is out of control,” the judge said. “What I have heard about August 28 is truly frightening.”

He gave Fehilly five 10- month jail sentences — one for driving while under the influence of cannabis, three for dangerous driving, and one for obstructing gardaí “in a most grievous manner”, with another three-month jail term for failing to previously turn up in court. He also banned him from driving for five years.

He said any appeal would require Fehilly’s own bond of €100 and an independent surety of €10,000 in cash, alongside bail conditions including that signing on daily at Kinsale Garda Station and staying away from drugs.