A teenager who caused the death of two gardaí when he rammed a stolen sports car into their patrol car at nearly 100 m.p.h. has been jailed for eight years by Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Raymond Dowdall (18), Galtymore Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, was driving the Mazda MX5 when it smashed into the patrol car containing Garda Anthony Tighe (53) and Garda Michael Padden (27) on the Stillorgan dual carriageway in Dublin in the early hours of April 14th, 2002.
Dowdall and an accomplice, Gerard Eglington, had earlier committed a burglary in Dalkey and stolen the keys of the black Mazda MX5. They reached speeds of up to 130 m.p.h., breaking red lights, as seven Garda cars chased them through Dalkey, Ballsbridge and Donnybrook in Dublin. One witness said they sped past her as if she was stationary, before they smashed into the Garda car.
Det Insp Martin Cummins said witnesses claimed there was no sound of any brakes and no skid marks were left in the road. The Garda car jumped about nine feet off the ground and somersaulted at 40 m.p.h. through the air before coming to rest on a grassy knoll.
Garda Tighe and Garda Padden, who were in the vicinity trying to clear the road because of the approaching sports car, were killed instantly.
Det Insp Cummins said Dowdall was in hospital for two weeks after breaking both his knees and was in a wheelchair after being discharged from hospital.
Dowdall pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment and dangerous driving causing the deaths of Garda Padden and Garda Tighe. He has 42 previous convictions, 11 for road traffic offences.
Judge Hogan also disqualified Dowdall from driving for 30 years and said the list of aggravating factors far outweighed any mitigating circumstances so that it would come as no surprise to anyone to hear that a custodial sentence had to be imposed.
"The driving was deliberately criminal and it was an odyssey of endangerment to the public as well as to other drivers on the road and which regrettably culminated in the deaths of two fine people who were doing their duty and doing it in a way that included the safety of other people.
"This was nothing but an act of bravado that had terrible and far-reaching consequences. One of the gardaí was a young man cut off in the prime of his life and the other was a married man with children. Both of those families and extended families will have to live with the consequences of this for the rest of their lives," said Judge Hogan.
Ms Irene Tighe, the wife of Garda Tighe, broke down as she told the court: "My life and the lives of my children have been left ruined. I can't describe the loneliness without him. He was a great father, husband and the lives of everyone who came in contact with him have been ruined."
Garda Padden's cousin, Ms Justine Reilly, told the court: "No words can describe what Michael's family has been through. He was a lovely person, the most courteous, the best of fun and only 27 at the time. He had a beautiful life ahead of him and a huge part of our lives has been wiped away. Every family celebration will now be tinged with sadness because he'll be the one we think of."
Det Insp Cummins told Mr Shane Murphy SC, prosecuting, that Garda Padden's long-term girlfriend, Ms Lisa Mills, rallied for a bit after his death but ultimately she returned to her home country, Canada, because her life was destroyed. He added that Garda Tighe's wife and four children, three sons and a daughter, had been left devastated by the tragedy and were still trying to come to terms with it.
Mr Peter Finlay SC, for Dowdall, paid tribute to the two gardaí and the work they were doing on the morning of the deaths. "Some people here today owed a great deal to the two members who were heroically trying to prevent other cars coming in contact with the stolen Mazda."
There was little he could say on behalf of his client but Dowdall had written a letter to the court and could only show his remorse and say he was sorry, perhaps the wrong word to be used on the day that was in it.
Eglington (17) was given four years' detention last January by Judge Katherine Delahunt for being a passenger in the car. This will begin in St Patrick's Institution on March 15th, 2004, when his current detention at Trinity House for another matter will be completed. He pleaded guilty to unlawfully taking possession of a mechanically propelled vehicle and allowing himself to be carried in a stolen vehicle on the day in question.
He also admitted stealing a mobile phone, a set of car keys, two sets of house keys, a cheque book and a wallet containing cash and bank and credit cards, from an apartment at Bullock Harbour, Dalkey.
Judge Delahunt noted Eglington should have been in Trinity House on the day but a place was not available for him there. He was also disqualified from driving for 10 years.