A judge has jailed recent Irish Traveller Pride Award winner and well-known rapper William Casey (30) for careless driving causing death.
At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Brian O’Callaghan imposed a 15-month prison term suspending the final 12 months on Casey of O’Briensbridge in southeast Clare. The judge also handed down a four-year driving ban. He said the case involved “aggravating factor after aggravating factor” and said the defendant had maintained a lie that the now deceased Christopher Nolan was the driver of a car in a single-vehicle crash at Ardclooney, Killaloe in east Clare on November 7th, 2017, when in fact Casey was the driver.
Nolan (27) was a back-seat passenger in the car that also had three other passengers. He died three days later in hospital from his injuries.
In her victim impact evidence, Tracy Nolan — sister of the dead man — said Christopher’s two young girls were left without a father and they lost their mother several months later through an overdose. Ms Nolan said that the family would have accepted an apology from Casey over what occurred as she understood that accidents happen. She recounted how when family members were at Christopher’s bedside in hospital, her brother got a phone call from Casey who said he wasn’t driving the car but that Christopher was.
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“William Casey never apologised or showed any remorse,” she said.
Casey went on trial for dangerous driving causing the death of Nolan in June of last year at Ennis Circuit Court and pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death two days into the trial. He was disqualified from driving at the time of the crash in November 2017.
Character evidence
A worker with the Tipperary Rural Traveller Project, Jack Griffin, gave character evidence on behalf of Casey. He said the defendant was a talented musician, poet and artist and won a National Traveller Pride award earlier this month. He is known as rapper Willzee.
In a letter read out in court, Casey apologised to the Nolan family for the hurt he has caused them.
“It was never my intention to hurt anyone,” he wrote. “I honestly hate myself for the decisions I made that night and it has taken me a while to come to terms with the disgusting way I behaved.”
Counsel for the State, Lorcan Connolly, said because Casey told gardaí on the night that he wasn’t driving he couldn’t be tested for drink-driving.