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Carn woman walks free
from court
29.07.08
A YOUNG Carndonagh
woman walked free from court yesterday after a judge
found that the fatal crash she caused more than
three years ago was not the result of 'girl-racing'.
Louise Cantwell, 24, a beautician from Gortlarry,
Carndonagh, was found guilty by a jury in May of
dangerous driving causing the deaths of her two
friends, Alice Mullan, 20 and Kelly Doherty, also
20, in an accident at Ballyargus, Redcastle, shortly
after 3.30am on March 19, 2005.
During sentencing yesterday at Letterkenny Circuit
Criminal Court, Ms. Cantwell received a three year
suspended prison sentence and was disqualified from
driving for five years. |
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The court heard that
all three friends were travelling home to Carndonagh
in the defendant’s car from a nightclub in Redcastle
when the collision occurred. In a poignant twist of
fate, the friends had started their evening at a
benefit in memory of another friend, Shane Toye, 19,
also from Carndonagh, who died in a crash almost
exactly a |
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year before.
The court was told
yesterday how Ms. Cantwell's white Corsa was coming
around a sweeping right-hand bend when it crossed
the continuous white line. It ended up in the wrong
carriageway and struck an oncoming car driven by
another young woman, Rhona Moran, who was travelling
home to Moville, Co Donegal from her work in Derry.
The defendant's car was also struck by a blue
Citroen Saxo driven by another friend Patricia
Logue. The Saxo was also carrying four of the
group's male friends and was driving behind the
Corsa after the defendant overtook it shortly after
both cars left the nightclub car park.
The hearing yesterday heard how the defendant's car
spun around on the road and ended up on top of a
barrel filled with gravel that was on the hard
shoulder as part of roadworks. Alice Mullan, who was
a back-seat passenger, died at the scene while Kelly
Doherty, who was in the front, later died at
Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry. The defendant was
also taken to the Derry hospital having sustained a
broken right leg, broken left arm and fractured
pelvis. Ms. Moran’s car ended up in the ditch on her
correct side while nobody in the Saxo was seriously
hurt.
Victim impact statements from the families of the
deceased, both of whom worked as civil servants in
Dublin, were read out in court yesterday.
The families said their pain had been deepened
because Ms. Cantwell had shown no remorse and had
not apologised for the accident.
Ms Doherty's family said their "world fell apart"
when she died in the accident. She was "someone
special who always put others first". The court
heard how Kelly had texted her mother just before
the accident to say she had had a great night and
would be home soon. The Mullan family statement
described how Alice "filled the house with fun and
laughter" when she came home from Dublin at
weekends.
Defence counsel Bernard Madden S.C., described the
"personal hell" his client was going through and
said the risk of her re-offending was practically
non-existent.
In his summing up, Judge Martin Nolan said he could
find no aggravating factors such as "excessive
speed, boy-racing or girl-racing" in the evidence
that would justify a custodial sentence for the
defendant, who had no previous convictions.
He said he could only conclude what caused the
accident was "inattention" that caused the defendant
to career into the wrong carriageway. “Inattention
is a human frailty that can affect us all and can
have devastating consequences,” he said. |
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