A Tyrone carpenter has been jailed for between three and nine years in New York for killing a South American woman in a car crash.
Christopher Kiernan (26) fought back tears as he apologised to the family of Carlene Joseph, a native of Guyana, who was killed while returning from a shopping trip last June.
Kiernan, an illegal immigrant who did not have a valid US driver's licence, was nearly five times over the drinking limit at the time of the crash. He is to be deported back to Ireland when he is released from prison.
Before sentencing in White Plains, New York, Ms Joseph's husband, Emanuel, took his three children to Kiernan and told him that the Joseph family forgave him.
Mr Joseph said he hoped that Kiernan regained his state of control and realised the devastation he had brought to society and to a family.
