A garda whose careless driving caused the death of a 75-year-old pedestrian has had a nine-month prison sentence deferred on condition he pay €5,000 to a charity.
Warren Farrell (33), a garda serving in Ballyfermot, Co Dublin, was driving a marked patrol car in response to an incident at a Topaz garage when his vehicle struck Elizabeth Core.
Garda Farrell had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to dangerous driving causing the death of Mrs Core at Fonthill Road South, Dublin, on August 28th, 2014.
After a trial last December a jury convicted Garda Farrell by majority verdict on an alternative charge of careless driving causing death. Judge Cormac Quinn had advised the jurors they could convict on this alternative charge.
On Tuesday Judge Quinn said the degree of Farrell’s culpability was in the lower range. He said the aggravating factor was his speed.
The trial heard that after seeing Mrs Core crossing from the far side of the road Garda Farrell failed to slow the car. He later told investigators that he believed Mrs Core would see or hear the patrol car and stop crossing and return to her side of the road.
He said he was surprised that she continued to cross the road and immediately applied brakes and entered the bus lane to avoid hitting her.
Garda Farrell said he attempted to mount the car onto the footpath on his left but was unable to do so and the left tyre burst. The front right of the car hit Mrs Core and she was pushed onto the front windscreen.
Forensic investigators put the car’s speed at the point of impact, following heavy braking, at between 50 to 56 km/h. The speed limit on the road was 50 km/h.
Judge Quinn said there is a tension between the duty imposed on gardaí to respond to calls as quickly as possible and the duty not to endanger the public.
He said there was evidence Garda Farrell experienced a “violation of expectancy” where he had expected Mrs Core to stop crossing.
When he saw she continued to cross he reassessed the situation and applied the brakes. Judge Quinn noted that as a result of this up to 2.5 seconds in stopping time were lost.
At a hearing last month Thomas Core, Mrs Core’s son, described his mother as “a singer and a dancer” and “the life and soul of family gatherings”.
Reading from his victim impact statement, he said his mother had been fit and healthy for her age and had many more years of her life left. He said his father’s health deteriorated after his mother’s death and he passed away “almost two years to the day she died”.
Judge Quinn extended the court’s sympathy to the Core family. He said that while the consequences of the “bad driving” must be taken into consideration they were not the determinative factor.
He ordered that Gda Farrell pay a fine of €2,000 as well as pay €5,000 over to the Irish Road Victims Association in the next four months. He set a proposed prison sentence of nine months which he deferred under section 100 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 where a court can defer sentence under conditions.
At last month’s hearing Det Supt Colm O’Malley offered “sincere condolences” to the Core family for their tragic loss on behalf of Garda Farrell and An Garda Síochána.
He agreed with defence counsel Patrick McGrath SC that Garda Farrell had always wished to extend his condolences personally, but that it would not have been appropriate while the court case was ongoing.
James Butler, an investigator with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc), told the court that Garda Farrell told Gsoc investigators that he had been satisfied before collision that his car’s blue flashing lights and sirens would have alerted Mrs Core and she would have remained on her side of the road.
Mr Butler told James Dwyer SC, prosecuting, that Garda Farrell said he continued driving at the same speed as a result. Some civilian witnesses during the trial testified that the siren or blue lights were not on when they saw the car before the collision.
Mr Butler said the Director of Public Prosecutions had rejected an offer of a guilty plea on careless driving causing death and the matter went to trial.
He agreed with Mr McGrath that Garda Farrell had taken evasive action before the collision, but his vehicle’s tyre burst and he was unable to mount a footpath to avoid impact.
Mr Core, in his victim impact statement, criticised the delays in getting the case to trial. He also described the trauma of having to hear details of his mother’s injuries during the post mortem evidence at trial.
He thanked the prosecution team and Gsoc for their “patience and willingness to meet us at every stage”. He also thanked the jury members for seeing “the truth of the matter”.
Det Supt O’Malley told Mr McGrath that Garda Farrell has been a garda for 12 years and had an unblemished disciplinary record.
He has received commendations for excellent police work in apprehending offenders and, in one case, talking a 15-year-old boy out of taking his own life.
The superintendent told Mr McGrath that Gda Farrell created and operates one of the “most professional” CCTV specialist units in An Garda.
He said Garda Farrell had also been nominated for the Scott Medal for bravery for facing down raiders carrying guns, while unarmed, with his colleague and without backup.
During the trial a forensic collision investigator for the defence said that Garda Farrell would have first been aware of Mrs Core’s presence when he was less than 200 metres away.
In his conclusions Adrian Armstrong. stated: “If Garda Farrell had reacted to Mrs Core’s presence at the earliest opportunity he had sufficient time to brake to a stop before he reached her, even if she was walking at the fastest likely speed of 2m per second and if he were driving at a speed as high as 70 kmh”.