A 33-year-old man who abandoned a three year old boy at the side of a country road after hijacking his mother’s car has been jailed for five years.
Noel Price, of Kileely Road, Limerick, drove for a mile with the child in the back of the stolen car before leaving him out on a narrow road in minus four degree temperatures.
At his sentencing hearing at Limerick Circuit Court today the court heard the 33-year-old had earlier forced the boy’s 12-year-old sister out of the car by jabbing a screwdriver into her back.
The girl, who was sitting in the front passenger seat when Price entered the car, had to jump from the car while it was moving, suffering injuries to her knees.
Her nine-year-old brother who was sitting in the back managed to escape before Price stole the black Opel Zafira with the youngest child inside.
The incident began shortly after 9am on January 20th last outside the Woodview Shopping Centre on the Old Cratloe Road in Limerick.
The children’s mother who was on the school run went into the Centra shop leaving the keys in the ignition of her car.
The woman became aware of the commotion outside when she heard her daughter screaming and watched in horror as her car was driven away with her three-year-old son still in side.
Garda Neil O’Gorman told the court that Price abandoned the boy about a mile down the road at the side of a narrow country road.
Evidence was heard that Price then drove the car at high speed on icy narrow roads becoming airborne on two occasions and narrowly missing groups of parents and children on their way to school.
He eventually crashed the car into a tree after gardaí fired two shots to disable the vehicle.
The 33-year-old was wearing a bullet proof vest and was under the influence of drugs and alcohol when he was arrested, the court heard.
He told gardaí he couldn’t remember much about the events but accepted he had taken the car and must have removed the child.
Price was jailed for 10 years in 2003 for an arson attack after petrol bombing a house in Clonlara with a family inside.
Before imposing sentence, Judge Carroll Moran said it was fortunate nobody was killed in the car hijacking incident and added that Price could have been before the court on a homicide charge, given the manner in which he was driving through villages close to where children were going to school.
Judge Moran said the 33-year-old had inflicted the most appalling traumatic experience on the injured family.
“God knows what went through the mind of the mother while this was going on, one can only imagine,” Judge Moran said.
Price pleaded guilty to a total of six charges arising out of the incident.
These included the unlawful seizure of a vehicle, the false imprisonment of a three-year-old boy, assault causing harm to a 12-year-old girl and engaging in conduct which created a substantial risk of serious harm, namely leaving a child at the side of a road.
He also pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly engaging in conduct which created a substantial risk of death or serious harm by driving at high speed at two gardaí.
Judge Moran said the appropriate sentence was one of seven years and suspended two years of the jail term.
He also disqualified Price from driving for 20 years.