Victim Impact statement conveys Cork teen's pain and frustration at mother's death

Lisa O'Brien's mother Teresa was killed when she was knocked off her bicycle in April last year

Catriona Hurley pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death before Judge James McNulty. File picture: iStock

"I have procrastinated in putting together this victim impact statement for many weeks as I have viewed it as being pointless not having an impact on the sentence to be decided. I viewed it as a waste of time as I believe it fools victims into believing that they are able to influence punishments."

The closing paragraph of Lisa O'Brien's victim impact statement, read in Skibbereen District Court, was clear in its pain and frustration. Lisa, aged 16 when her mother, Teresa, died after being knocked from her bicycle in April last year, had offered her views to the court, as had her older sister, Margaret, 24, but neither were in attendance. Both said it was too painful.

Before Judge James McNulty was Catriona Hurley, a 68-year-old from Coolnagrane near Skibbereen. She had been returning home from Mass in Leap when, in trying to overtake Teresa O'Brien, 48, as they both travelled in the same direction, her Volvo struck her.

Ms O'Brien was pronounced dead at the scene. Ms Hurley pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death.

"The main reason I have put together this statement is to try and gain some form of closure from the incident," Lisa concluded.

Judge McNulty said that sadly, closure may take some time. As for the contention that victim impact statements "fools victims into believing that they are able to influence punishments", he said: "That is not so and should not be so. The penalty should be decided by someone who is independent and impartial."

He said it would not be fair for the victim to decide on penalty but he said he was "deeply sympathetic" to the O'Brien family, describing the incident and its consequences as "catastrophic" and "harrowing".

He deferred penalty for two weeks and told the family's solicitor, James Brooks: "Your clients will inevitably be disappointed at the outcome."

He said this was because nothing could bring back the girls' mother or heal the hurt, bar the passing of the decades, while the limits on penalty in the district court was limited "and probably do not match the enormity of the offence and certainly not the enormity of the loss and consequences to the victims."

Lisa's older sister, Margaret, was 23 at the time of their mother's death.

In her victim impact statement, produced in court and provided to the Irish Examiner by the family's solicitor, she told of being overseas at the time of the incident.

"Upon receiving the news, I felt like my whole world was falling apart," she said.

"On the day of her death, I have had to grow up in ways that no twenty-something year old should have to do. Losing my mom in such a tragic way destroyed that sense of youth. Having to organise the funeral and saying my final goodbyes to my mother has caused me an extreme degree of emotional pain.

"Even if I was somehow able to avoid it it all day long, the pain would come back at night. I would ring her voicemail multiple times just to hear the sound of her voice one last time.

"The trauma of this tragic accident has made me accept that life is random and cruel."