A 21-year-old man whose heavily intoxicated and cocaine-fuelled dangerous driving caused the deaths of three young men has been jailed for eight years by Judge Miriam Reynolds at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Keith Bolger of Insey Bay, The Bark, Laytown, Co Meath, had been "dangerous to the highest degree contemplated by the legislation" while driving with his friends as passengers in the car, Judge Reynolds said.
The court heard that Bolger, with a former address at Lentisk Lawn, Donaghmede, had acquired the car only weeks before the incident occurred in the early hours of June 20th, 2003.
Judge Reynolds said the families of the deceased men, Peter O'Rourke (18), Anthony Murphy (18) and Aston Ryan (21), had been left with "empty beds, empty rooms and empty hearts". She noted the families had asked for clemency for Bolger and said she admired their generosity. However, she said, her duty was to construct a sentence that was proportionate to the offence and the offender.
Judge Reynolds noted that Bolger went on an eight-hour binge on the evening of June 19th, 2003, and had indulged in drink, cocaine and cannabis. He was showing off his new car and was driving at excessive speed when it hit a lamp post at the junction of Sutton Park and Sutton Road in Dublin in the early hours of the following morning.
Considering Bolger's early plea of guilty, the genuine remorse which he had expressed at the funeral of the young men and his acceptance of responsibility, Judge Reynolds suspended the last three years of the sentence.
"He is a young man and still has a life to live," she said.
Members of the Bolger family broke down in court as Judge Reynolds pronounced the sentence.
Earlier, Mr Patrick Ryan, father of Aston Ryan, said he didn't blame Bolger as much as he did drug-pushers for what happened.
Sgt Michael Brady told prosecuting counsel, Mr Luan Ó Braonáin, the car was travelling between 74 m.p.h. and 83 m.p.h. when it hit the lamp post. It rotated at 25 to 30 m.p.h. on impact and threw two of its occupants out of the vehicle.
Mr O'Rourke and Mr Murphy, who completed their Leaving Certificate exams that day and had got into the car less than an hour before the accident happened, were pronounced dead on arrival at the Mater Hospital.
Sgt Brady said they were sitting on the back seat on either side of Mr Ryan, who was pronounced dead later in the morning after attempts to resuscitate him failed at Beaumont Hospital. The fourth youth in the car, who was on the front passenger seat, and Bolger survived the crash.
"I don't know why I survived, I wish I could trade places with you," Bolger, who was 20 at the time of the accident, said in a note read out at the funeral of the young men.
The fathers of Mr O'Rourke and Mr Ryan said they did not hold Bolger responsible for the deaths of their sons. "My family does not hold Keith responsible," Mr Patrick Ryan said. He said if anyone was to blame, it should be "the drug pushers".
Mr Robert O'Rourke said: "I feel it would be an awful tragedy if another family were to be affected by this. I am thinking in particular of Keith's partner and son." He was referring to Bolger's now five-year-old son he had fathered when aged 16.
Mr Murphy's mother, Margaret Murphy, told Judge Reynolds she did not know why her son had got into Bolger's car at all. He had called her at midnight and told her he was going to stay at the O'Rourkes' that night after celebrating the last of his exams.
All three parents told Judge Reynolds how much they missed their sons and of the void left in each respective family.