Man jailed for dangerous driving causing father of three’s death

A man who spent the day drinking in pubs before crashing into and killing a father of three in Co Donegal has been jailed for 3½ years.

A 15-year driving ban was also imposed on Aaron McColgan at Letterkenny Circuit Court, where he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of John ‘Rustard’ McLaughlin.

Mr McLaughlin (38), an accountant and GAA coach, was returning from work at around 6pm on February 20th, 2017 to go to an under-16 training session at Malin GAA Club.

The court heard McColgan, a father of three from Culkeeny, Malin, had visited at least three pubs that day and crossed a continuous white line on the road in his Audi A4 before the collision at Strandhead, Malin.

The accused, who was 25 at the time, fled the scene but was arrested soon after and found to be driving under the influence of alcohol.

No answers

In a victim impact statement, Mr McLaughlin’s wife Mags Mulhall said she was pregnant at time of the crash and had to give birth to their third child without her husband. She said she has no answers for her children when they ask her if their father is working in heaven and if they can go to visit him.

“Helping to make father’s day cards to place on his grave was not supposed to be part of our adventure,” she said.

Ms Mulhall asked what might have been “if only Aaron McColgan had behaved differently”. She said the three years it took for the case to come before the court had been draining and that the family had received “a lifelong sentence” in losing her husband.

Garda Gerard McCauley said there was an 80km/h speed limit on the road and while they could not establish how fast the cars were going before the crash, McColgan’s Audi was traveling much faster than Mr McLaughlin’s Kia.

Damien Colgan, barrister for McColgan, said his client has expressed his remorse and had not come to Garda attention since the incident. The court heard that McColgan had previous convictions for offences including being drunk while in charge of a vehicle.

Judge John Aylmer said Mr McLaughlin’s death had been harrowing for his family. He said the offence initially merited a sentence of 6½ years. He said that because of McColgan’s early guilty plea and remorse he reduced the sentence by two years and he suspened the last year on condition that McColgan be of good behaviour.