Two men have been sentenced to six years in jail and banned from driving for 20 years after their conviction of manslaughter after a horrific crash in Co Donegal. Two women died in the crash.
Both drivers who were uninsured had been driving at high speed in separate cars, Letterkenny Circuit Court was told yesterday.
Judge Matthew Deery said it was hard to describe the event as an accident, particularly when both men were driving over a sustained period at speeds reaching 100 m.p.h. on a 10-mile stretch of secondary road.
He said it was inevitable someone was going to be killed.
There were emotional scenes at the back of the court room as members of the family of one of the deceased, Ms Sally McConnellogue, called the two defendants "animals" and wished they both "rot in hell".
A sister, Ms Maureen McGuire, screamed at the two Derry men who were friends and neighbours of the late Ms McConnellogue, shouting: "It's not enough. I hope you suffer the pains of hell our family has suffered," before being taken from the court by relatives.
Patrick Savage (42), Prehen Park, Waterside, Derry, and Thomas Melaugh (43), Cavanagh Court, Ballymagroarty, Co Derry, were sentenced to six years on each of the charges relating to the accident on September 21 last.
They were charged with the unlawful killing of Ms McConnellogue (39), Ballymagroarty, Co Derry, and Ms Avril Friel (26), The Lagg, Milford, and three charges of endangering the lives of Jimmy and Kathleen Friel and Hugh Whoriskey. All sentences are to run concurrently.
Both men were also disqualified from driving for 20 years.
Counsel for the State, Mr Richard Lyons, told the court the two defendants met in the Silver Tassie Hotel and had one drink before leaving to travel to a caravan park in Kerrykeel, through the country towns of Ramelton and Milford.
Savage was driving a black Audi Quatro and Melaugh was driving a white Mercedes, both owned by Savage. Neither car was insured.
Mr Lyons read from a substantial book of evidence containing statements from numerous witnesses many of whom spotted the cars driving at speeds of 70 to 100 m.p.h., overtaking, attempting to overtake on the inside, appearing to drive on two wheels, travelling bumper to bumper and travelling side by side shortly before the fatal collision on a 10-mile stretch of road.
Ms McConnellogue was a rear-seat passenger in Melaugh's car.
Mr Jimmy Friel and his wife Kathleen were returning from Saturday evening Mass when the crash happened on a right-hand bend outside the old Milford Bakery at Tirhomin, Milford.
Mr Hugh Whoriskey was travelling in a Peugeot van behind and said he saw the cars come around the bend out of control, and one car appeared to be on two wheels.
The white Mercedes driven by Melaugh collided with the Friel's family car and also hit Mr Whoriskey's van before losing the engine and gear box and coming to rest against a wall some distance away. The Audi car went over the embankment on impact and landed on the sea shore.
Supt Hubert Collins said both cars lost control on a right-hand bend and left substantial skid and scrape marks on the road