A DUBLIN youth who knocked down a man leaving him in a coma and with severe brain damage, believed that his victim was involved in his brother’s killing, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
During the sentence hearing for Gavin Guerrine (20) yesterday, Garda David Gilmore said his brother, Darren Guerrine, had been shot dead a year before the incident and his body found in the Grand Canal.
He said Guerrine, La Touche Road, Bluebell, held a genuine belief that Christopher O’Rourke was involved in the death and that this belief was “at the forefront of his mind” when he knocked him down on the afternoon of April 19th, 2009.
Mr O’Rourke (23) had been walking down Huband Road with his girlfriend when Guerrine drove at him at speed, sending him flying into the air.
He then took off again at speed.
Mr O’Rourke suffered a severe brain injury and spent several weeks in a coma. He also sustained facial fractures, and a serious leg injury which made walking difficult and forced him to use a wheelchair.
In November last year, Guerrine pleaded guilty to recklessly or intentionally causing serious harm to Mr O’Rourke.
In his evidence, Garda Gilmore agreed with Patrick Gageby SC, defending, that Guerrine did not go out with the intention of committing the act and that he had had a “rush of blood to the head” when he saw Mr O’Rourke.
Garda Gilmore also accepted that Guerrine was in a state of shock when stopped by gardaí a few minutes later, after they noticed him driving with a smashed windscreen. They followed him home and on the way, passed a large group of people gathered around an unconscious Mr O’Rourke. At least seven of these people identified Guerrine as having hit Mr O’Rourke.
A report from a clinical psychologist said Guerrine suffered symptoms of post-traumatic stress following his brother’s murder, that he regretted running down Mr O’Rourke and could not believe he was capable of doing it.
In her victim impact statement to the court, Mr O’Rourke’s mother, Debbie Smyth, said Christopher was “the best son a mother could wish for.”
She said he was fun-loving and lived life to the full, but when he awoke from his coma he was “a sad man with empty eyes”. Ms Smyth said he was totally housebound because of his injuries and was depressed and frustrated that he had to use a wheelchair.
“He could not accept his life as it was now,” she said. Her son made two attempts on his life in 2010, and died one month after his 25th birthday, in August last year, from a drugs overdose.
The court heard that the Director of Public Prosecutions regarded the offence as being on the upper end of the scale, given the gravity of Mr O’Rourke’s injuries. The maximum sentence is life imprisonment.
Mr Justice Paul Carney is due to hand down sentence in the case today.