A man whose dangerous driving caused the death of a 55 year old Letterkenny farmer has been jailed for five and a half years. Henry Kiely was also banned from driving for thirty years when he was sentenced at Letterkenny Circuit Court.
His actions led to the death of Francis Browne of Listillion who passed away the day after the accused collided with him on September 6th, 2018. Imposing sentence, Judge John Aylmer said the accused had already engaged in acts of dangerous driving prior to the collision which led to the death of Mr Browne. The accused had had a row with his girlfriend while driving and this had been the cause of “furious driving” on his part with the fury prompting him to drive at a very high speed.
He had overtaken three vehicles in a row while approaching a bend and the incident was further aggravated by the fact that he was serving a seven year ban imposed for previous convictions for dangerous driving and was driving without insurance or a licence. He had fled the scene and left Mr Browne dying on the road and his, the accused’s, girlfriend badly injured in the car.
In mitigating circumstances, Kiely had tendered an early plea of guilt and had shown genuine remorse. The sense of guilt had taken a heavy toll on him and he had suffered depression and attempted suicide on two occasions relatively recently, Judge Alymer stated. The charge of dangerous driving causing death merited a sentence of eight years but he would reduce it to one of six and a half years, suspending the final twelve months on condition that the accused enter a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour.
Judge Alymer also banned Kiely from driving for a period of thirty years.
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