Jail for banned driver who left two seriously hurt and 'calmly' drove away with screaming child in back of car

Paul Connolly has 215 previous convictions including 14 for dangerous driving and three for hit-and-runs. He admitted taking cocaine and tablets the night before his car mounted the footpath in this case.

A Kildare man who left two pedestrians seriously injured when he drove onto a busy footpath before “calmly” leaving the scene has been given an eight-and-a-half-year sentence.

Paul Connolly (37) was under the influence of drugs and was driving his young child to school when his car mounted the footpath, leaving one young law student with a “catastrophic” brain injury.