Judge acquits truck driver in 'speculative' careless driving case that left boy in hospital

The boy was taken to Temple Street Hospital, where the court heard he spent 23 days in intensive care and had to be ventilated

Judge Pauline Codd told the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that the accused man, Joseph Coughlan, had been “effectively exonerated” by the garda investigating the accident.

A truck driver accused of careless driving causing serious harm to a five-year-old schoolboy who got trapped under the wheel of his truck has been acquitted after a judge found the prosecution case against him was “speculative”.

Following legal argument after the first day of his trial in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Pauline Codd said the accused man, Joseph Coughlan, had been “effectively exonerated” by the garda investigating the accident.