Dublin 7<\/a>, pleaded guilty to one count of careless driving causing serious bodily harm to Winters at Davin Road, Drimnagh, on October 9th, 2024.<\/p>\nIt is a charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of two years. He has no previous convictions. He was on Tuesday given a 12-month suspended sentence and disqualified from driving for four years.<\/p>\n
Saville told Emmet Nolan, prosecuting, that an eye witness to the accident told garda\u00ed she was crossing the road just behind Winters when the car driven by Wrafter \u201cwhizzed\u201d past and knocked her down.<\/p>\n
Wrafter, a chef, stopped the car immediately and was distraught, the court heard. <\/p>\n
An investigation ascertained that Wrafter was not speeding or on his mobile phone, was not under the influence of alcohol or other intoxicants and his car insurance and driving licence were all in order.<\/p>\n
He told garda\u00ed he didn\u2019t notice the red light and the case against him was on the basis he failed to keep a proper look-out, the court heard.<\/p>\n
A medical report before the court found Winters suffered multiple fractures to her spine and ribs, a broken pelvis, an internal degloving of one leg and multiple fractures to her skull and eye socket. She suffered a brain bleed which required an internal probe to monitor.<\/p>\n
In a lengthy victim-impact statement, Winters described the far-reaching consequences of her injuries \u2013 both physical and mental \u2013 and how it has also impacted her ability to care for her elderly mother.<\/p>\n
She said she now lives in a state of chronic pain and has lost her independence, her identity, the value of her opinion, her expertise, strength, hope and language skills, among others. She has hearing difficulties and lost her sense of smell, she requires a crutch to walk and was unable to work.<\/p>\n
She said her partner, mother, sisters and other family members did not expect her to survive and \u201cgrieved for me before I died\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such a short sentence: \u2018He broke the lights\u2019,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it shattered peoples\u2019 lives for days and weeks. It shattered my world.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said her recovery has been about \u201clearning and acceptance\u201d. \u201cOver a year later, I am still learning and accepting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI survived and I can advocate for myself again,\u201d she said, concluding: \u201cVictims need to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Staunton, defending Wrafter, said Winters\u2019s victim-impact statement was both eloquent and insightful.<\/p>\n
He said his client was deeply remorseful for what happened that night and had frequently asked about Winters\u2019s health and made enquiries with his insurance company about her. He has not driven since and has a high degree of anxiety, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Staunton said Wrafter works as a chef and used to drive to different catering events but his employer has adapted this part of his work for him. A letter from his employer was handed into court along with a letter from Wrafter himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is distraught over what happened,\u201d Staunton said.<\/p>\n
Sentencing him on Tuesday, Judge Elma Sheahan paid tribute to Winters\u2019s dignity throughout the hearing, noting her victim-impact statement vividly detailed how her life has been impacted by the incident.<\/p>\n
Sheahan set a headline sentence of 16 months to reflect the impact on the victim, before noting: \u201cNo sentence will restore her to the health and peace of mind she once had.\u201d<\/p>\n
She accepted Wrafter\u2019s remorse was genuine, noting it was supported by his actions since the offence as well as his words, including his early guilty plea, his co-operation with garda\u00ed, his enquiries after Winters and his letter of apology.<\/p>\n
She set a sentence of 12 months which she suspended on a number of conditions and disqualified Wrafter from driving for four years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who was knocked down on a pedestrian crossing and left with devastating, life-changing injuries has said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[67554,9,10,73168,29424,30502,18573,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-493486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-beaumont-hospital","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-criminal-courts","tag-drimnagh","tag-dublin-12","tag-dublin-7","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116604827558126069","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}