‘You can kill a man and walk free’ – Ronan Keating hits out after man given suspended sentence over death of brother

by PoppedCork

24 comments

  1. That sentence really makes you think how little value some lives are given.

  2. If you want to kill someone in Ireland, do it with a car

  4. God, you feel horrible for the family, but I really don’t get the instinct to throw this guy in jail. He’s banned from driving, has a permanent criminal record and has to live with the guilt for the rest of his life. What extra good does it do for the taxpayer to pay for a forced stay in a shit hotel for a while?

    RIP to the dead man, what a horrible way to go

  5. He’s playing for a local GAA team, right? That explains a lot.

  6. In my personal opinion a custodial sentence was a must in this case and any similar case at a minimum.

  7. I’ve got reservations over suspended and concurrent sentences. I am not opposed to them, but I think they are used far too often.

    But, in any circumstances, when your direct negligence causes the death of someone else, a 17-month sentence, suspended or not, does not at all seem sufficient.  

  8. “Yes, your honour, I kicked that young man’s head in, but guess what else I kick? A GAA ball.”

    “Fair play to ya. Case dismissed.”

  9. Heartbreaking. I can’t even begin to imagine how the Keating family feel. It’s as if his life counted for nothing, if the person responsible for his death doesn’t even get a jail term for it.

  10. I can’t find more info, was it a genuine accident or was there dangerous driving / speeding/ substances etc involved. Obviously the death of a person is inexcusable and could it have been avoided is my question, people unfortunately die every day in car crashes and the other party doesn’t go to prison so I’m wondering what they’re not reporting here

  11. I can’t believe the amount if apologists in here that would instantly flip if it was their brother.

  12. He’s not wrong, and everyone has known this is the case for years in Ireland.

  14. Only banned from driving for two years. How is that fair?

  15. I don’t really agree with punishing too heavily based on consequences as opposed to the action. That comes down to luck too much.

    Going through a red light is a bad thing and probably carries a very small fine.

    If a pedestrian happened to be crossing, that’s bad luck for both you and the pedestrian because you did the exact same thing as the first person but now you’re looking at jail.

    There’s obviously a balance but I don’t think there should be a desperation to end another life.

  16. (Edited for clarity) If you are found *responsible* for killing someone with a car you should automatically get a lifetime driving ban with a huge fine/prison sentence if you’re ever caught behind the wheel again. 

    That’s on top of a mandatory prison sentence of at least 5 years. Far too many people get hurt/die on our roads because there’s no real deterrent to stop people from driving under the influence, speeding or using their phone as they drive, until we take a zero tolerance stance nothing will change. 

    Fear of getting caught and losing your car/license/freedom is probably the only thing that will make reckless drivers think twice because caring about other people’s safety isn’t a factor for them. It’s too easy to get away with bad driving because the majority never get caught, and if they do, they get no real punishment so it’s worth the risk.

  17. We would have much safer driving if there were serious consequences for driving dangerously.

  18. There was a guy down my way who killed a fella on the road late at night. Drove off and didn’t turn himself in for a day or two. I don’t want to speculate too heavily but I’m assuming he waited long enough that if there was anything in his system it would be fine and gone. As you can assume,. suspended sentence. Here’s the crazy part, that was the second time this guy has fucking knocked someone down and killed them. The first time was as i was told a relative of his. Never served any time for either.

  19. Interesting wonder if or how the government will respond.

    Need to tackle the “good lad playing for the local GAA club “ mentality that should not be a factor.

  20. Yep, total joke. My cousin’s 4 year old girl was killed by a truck driver driving dangerously on a narrow country road. No custodial sentence, license given back to him early. Sickening

  21. Even if it was 100% an accident, someone is dead because he drove on the wrong side of the road. Someone obeying the laws of the road is dead now. With zero consequences.

    What the hell is going on Ireland. Rapists, Thugs, Pedos and Murderers just walking around like nothing happened. You will march on the capital over water prices but not this.

  22. This is par the course for Ireland’s *”justice system”*.

    Ashling Murphy’s killer is so confident in Ireland’s ineptitude to properly punish criminals he’s being reported as bragging in confidence to other inmates that he will win his appeal.

    When the maladjusted know your legal system is a joke, you’re just going to get violent events becoming increasingly more common down the line.

  23. Very torn on this.

    I witnessed an incident where noone was really at fault which leaded to the death of a man on the road. Lack of communication was the reasoning behind it.

    The driver that ultimately killed him was not at fault. Noone could have reacted fast enough. Locking up that driver would be criminal in itself.

    My brother was locked up for 6 months for a 25bag though so it’s upsetting to see this.

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