A young man who helped drag the body of his dead friend from the front passenger's seat into the driver's seat following a crash in Co Galway was sentenced to 18 months in prison yesterday for dangerous driving causing death.
John Fitzpatrick (22), Cahermorris, Corrandulla, Co Galway pleaded guilty at Galway Circuit Criminal Court to dangerous driving which caused the death of his neighbour, Matthew Berry (21), at Pollinahalla, Belclare, Tuam, on July 5th, 2004.
The State withdrew a charge of perverting the course of justice. The DPP also decided not to press charges against three others who helped to move the body.
Judge Raymond Groarke said he was horrified at the way Mr Berry's "so-called friends" had treated his body with such disrespect following his death.
The court heard that following the crash on a narrow country road, Fitzpatrick rang home and also rang another friend who had been let out of the car moments before the crash.
His siblings, Lorraine and Adrian Fitzpatrick, along with his friend, Dermot McHugh, arrived at the scene. At Fitzpatrick's behest, they helped him to move Mr Berry's body into the driver's seat.
"My mind is boggled at the way these people, in dealing with their so-called friend who was described to me as a member of their group and a bosom-buddy - and yet when it comes to a matter of whose scalp was to be saved, there was no issue. He was to be sacrificed.
"Anyone listening to this must be utterly horrified," the judge said.
Sgt Tom Bermingham, Loughgeorge Garda station, told the court there had been three people in the car at the time of the accident at 3.40am.
Fitzpatrick, he said, was driving, Mr Berry had been in the front passenger's seat and Oliver Hanley had been lying across the back seat.
Mr Hanley was thrown from the car by the impact and suffered serious back injuries. Fitzpatrick, Sgt Bermingham said, had received minor cuts and bruises.
Sgt Bermingham said all four decided to move Mr Berry's body into the driver's seat before they contacted the ambulance service.
Sgt Bermingham said he arrived at the scene at 4.10am and immediately became suspicious about the position of Mr Berry's body after noticing that one of Mr Berry's legs was in an "unnatural" position in the car. Sgt Bermingham said the car mounted a grass verge on a narrow country road and then hit a tree.
Those in the car had been at an air show in Galway city the previous day and had gone to a pub and nightclub in Tuam that night. Mr Berry had been driving Fitzpatrick's car because he was not drinking. He was a keen sportsman with a promising football career ahead of him.
The court was told Fitzpatrick had up to seven drinks, of cider and/or lager, and that was why he did not drive. However, just after the car dropped off Mr McHugh, Fitzpatrick decided he wanted to drive the remaining two miles home and he told Mr Berry to get into the passenger's seat. The accident happened moments after the switch was made.
Sgt Bermingham said he went to the hospital at 6am that morning and again spoke to Fitzpatrick who again told him Mr Berry had been driving the car.
Sgt Bermingham said he noticed bruising which would have been caused by a seat belt, running from Fitzpatrick's right shoulder down to his left hip. This confirmed his suspicions that the accused had been driving the car, he said.
He also got a smell of alcohol from Fitzpatrick's breath, but he was unable to get a designated doctor to come to the hospital to take a blood sample.
Judge Groarke expressed concern at this and when summing up afterwards said:, "I'm shocked and astonished that in a place like Galway there is not available to the gardaí medical assistance to carry out examinations on people who are involved in serious accidents."
Maureen Berry, grandmother of the man who died, told the court that while she could accept her grandson had died in the crash, she could never accept the fact his body had been moved. She said Matthew's mother had died four years previously and he had been an only child.
Her daughter had been a single mother and Matthew had lived with her all of his life. She described him as a loving, caring young man.