A TEENAGE FRIEND of youths who died in the fatal M9 crash has pleaded guilty to driving on the wrong side of the M50 in Dublin after he led garda\u00ed on a high-speed pursuit.<\/p>\n
At the Dublin Children\u2019s Court on Tuesday, the 17-year-old pleaded guilty to charges of endangerment of life and motor theft arising from an unconnected joyriding incident on the night of 18 May.<\/p>\n
Defence counsel Noah Rossiter said the deaths of the five youths after travelling and colliding on the wrong side of the M9 in Kildare last month prompted a turnaround in the boy\u2019s behaviour. He cannot be named because he is a juvenile.<\/p>\n
Three adult sisters and a seven-year-old boy in the other oncoming vehicle were either critically or seriously injured in that collision in the early hours of 16 August.<\/p>\n
Defence counsel Rossiter told Judge Paul Kelly that as a result of that, the teenager realised that he would end up \u201cbehind bars or in a grave\u201d if he did not change his ways.<\/p>\n
The boy had led garda\u00ed on a 33-minute car chase starting in Tallaght before taking to the M50 motorway twice, entering each time along slip roads the wrong way and travelling against the flow of traffic.<\/p>\n
Garda Jason Curran said the teenager failed to stop for blockade attempts and the use of stinger devices. He was tracked by the Garda Airport Support Unit\u2019s helicopter on the motorway and came to a stop after suffering burst tyres.<\/p>\n
The teenager had another youth as a passenger, in a stolen Toyota Aqua.<\/p>\n
The garda detailed how the car was detected at 9.43pm on Fortunestown Way before it continued through Tallaght and kept driving despite garda\u00ed signalling him to stop.<\/p>\n
The court heard it resulted in a traffic pursuit with several dangerous driving incidents.<\/p>\n
The garda said at 9.54pm the boy entered the M50 the wrong way on a slip road at Junction 10, Ballymount, to evade garda\u00ed. The stolen Toyota sped south in the northbound lane.<\/p>\n
Between Junction 12 and Junction 13, he turned around and, after crossing several lanes, travelled the correct way and exited the motorway at Junction 12.<\/p>\n
At this point, the Garda Airport Unit helicopter \u201cwas overhead and had eyes on the vehicle\u201d.<\/p>\n
It went into back roads in Tallaght, making more dangerous manoeuvres when roadblocks and stingers were deployed, but they were unsuccessful in stopping the boy.<\/p>\n
At 10.07pm, the teenager drove the wrong way down the slip road at Junction 12, Firhouse, and continued south in the northbound lane.<\/p>\n
The court heard there was heavy traffic on the motorway, the weather was poor, the road was wet and it was dark at the time.<\/p>\n
The vehicle was speeding but had damaged tyres and began to slow and stop.<\/p>\n
The officer believed that was due to burst tyres. The defendant and his passenger got out and lay on the ground at the back of the car to surrender themselves to garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n
The second youth avoided prosecution due to inclusion in the Garda Youth Diversion Programme.<\/p>\n
CCTV footage showed he drove on the hard shoulder except when he passed other slip roads on the motorway.<\/p>\n
The garda agreed with the defence that the teenager was apologetic and made admissions immediately after his arrest.<\/p>\n
The State argued that the case should be sent forward to the Circuit Court, which has wider sentencing powers, stressing that the teenager could have killed himself, innocent road users, or members of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na.<\/p>\n
However, after submissions from the teenager\u2019s defence counsel, who argued that the Children\u2019s Court had appropriate sentencing powers of up to 24 months, Judge Paul Kelly accepted jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
The court heard the teenager had a troubled background and was receiving support from Tusla.<\/p>\n
Rossiter told the court that the boy, who has no prior criminal record, had experienced a tumultuous period in recent times and had a compromised mental state.<\/p>\n
He also had several diagnoses, including ADHD. He required educational assistance in school and recently spent three weeks in custody on remand at the Oberstown Children Detention Campus.<\/p>\n
The court heard that he has since engaged in training courses and that his stint in custody prompted a change in his behaviour. He was also getting support from pro-social family members.<\/p>\n
Rossiter stressed that the boy had recognised his error, having seen the tragic outcome for his friends in the M9 chase.<\/p>\n
Accepting jurisdiction in the case, the judge described the driving as incredibly dangerous, stating there was \u201cno excuse\u201d for his actions. However, in accepting jurisdiction, he noted from the footage that the teenager had driven on the hard shoulder and flashed lights to warn oncoming motorists.<\/p>\n
The boy, who remains on bail, still has to enter pleas to 10 connected dangerous driving charges for incidents immediately before, during and after he first turned onto the M50.<\/p>\n
He did not have to give evidence and spoke to the judge about his education, his current accommodation, and efforts to support him in the future.<\/p>\n
The case resumes in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A TEENAGE FRIEND of youths who died in the fatal M9 crash has pleaded guilty to driving on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,3914,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-678938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-children","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\/117236721616594144","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678938","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=678938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}