A banned driver who killed a bride-to-be just hours after she had been shopping for her wedding dress has been jailed for five years.
Sean Connaughton (54) was already banned from getting behind the wheel for four years for not being insured when he drove over Laura Connolly (35).
The mother of one was returning home from a night out with friends when she lay down in the middle of a road in her hometown of Lifford in Co Donegal in the early hours of July 11th, 2021.
Connaughton, a former firefighter, claimed he did not realise he had struck anyone and drove on without stopping.
Passing sentence on Connaughton, Judge John Aylmer said there were a number of aggravating factors and placed the charges at the upper end of the scale.
He said the most aggravating factors included that Connaughton was driving while disqualified, that he was driving at speed and that he failed to keep a proper lookout. Connaughton, he said, had also failed to see another car flashing its headlights at him and pedestrians warning him of the “hazard” on the road ahead.
He initially sentenced Connaughton to seven years for dangerous driving causing death. This was reduced to six with mitigation taken into account. The sentence included five years for leaving the scene, six months for driving without insurance and six months for driving without a licence.
In mitigation, Aylmer had taken into account his guilty plea, the fact he handed himself into gardaí the morning after the incident and that he appeared to be genuinely remorseful.
The judge also noted Connaughton had lost contact with his two adult children as a result of the incident and that he had received a death threat, forcing him to leave his native Donegal.
He also took into consideration the fact that the Connaughton had been a firefighter and had served the community for 25 years and that the Probation Service had placed him at a moderate risk of reoffending.
Having considered all mitigation, the judge reduced the sentence.
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He also banned the accused from holding a driving licence for 15 years.
Rosemary Connolly, mother of the late Laura Connolly, said her family do not feel they got justice for her daughter’s death.
Speaking outside Letterkenny Courthouse, Connolly said “We didn’t get any justice for our daughter’s death. The runaround that he gave us, right up to today. Postpone, postpone, postpone. The family is destroyed and wrecked. The five years will never bring my daughter back.
“My Laura was the love of my life from the day she was born. She was a good mother and a good person. She loved life and she lived life to the full,” she added.
Father-of-two Connuaghton had been leasing a pub in Castlefin at the time of the incident. He was already disqualified from driving for four years from April 10th, 2020, for not having insurance on a previous occasion.
He fled to his partner’s home in Dundalk but presented himself at Letterkenny Garda station the following day after hearing a woman had been killed.
Laura Connolly died after suffering horrific injuries after she was driven over by a white Citroen Berlingo van.
Letterkenny Circuit Court heard how she Ms had been out socialising with friends and was lying on the road after laughing and joking with friends.
Just hours earlier she had been out shopping for her wedding dress.
Connolly, a mother-of-one from Croaghan Heights in Lifford, had been due to marry her childhood sweetheart Joseph McCullagh, whom she had been dating since she was 16.
Connaughton, with an address at Doolargy Avenue, Dundalk, Co Louth, appeared in court where he had already pleaded to one charge of dangerous driving causing death.
The court was told that Connolly was among five women who were walking along a footpath at Townspark, Lifford when the incident occurred approximately 200 metres from the Three Coins roundabout.
One of Connolly’s friends, Demi Carlin, said she had been laughing, dancing and singing and then lay on her back in the middle of the road with her head resting on the centre white-line.
Carlin said the other women in the group had walked on and didn’t realise Connolly was lying on the road.
The friend then said she heard a vehicle coming and was shouting at Laura to get back on the footpath and was waving at her to indicate something was coming.
The van drove over Ms Connolly, failed to slow down and then drove off without stopping.
Connaughton presented himself at Letterkenny Garda station the following day after hearing of the incident.
During interview, he denied being involved in any crash. He said he was a trained paramedic and that if he hit something, he would have stopped.
A subsequent forensic examination of his Citroen Berlingo van, however, found DNA which was a match to Connolly.
A forensic examination of the scene showed brake-marks on the road. The van involved had been estimated to be travelling at 73kph in a 50kph zone.
The court also heard five emotional victim-impact statements from the family of Ms Connolly and how their lives have changed.
The court was told that the accused man has 16 previous convictions including five under the Road Traffic Act, two under the Larceny Act and others connected to Covid regulations while operating a licensed premises.
The accused man took to the witness box and said whatever he had to say to the Connolly family would be of no comfort to them.