DPP v Vincent McCormack

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: McCracken J.
• Judgment Date: 27 April 2006
• Neutral Citation: [2006] IECCA 60
• Date: 27 April 2006
• Court: Court of Criminal Appeal
• Docket Number: 229CJA/05

[2006] IECCA 60

COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL

McCracken J.

O'Donovan J.

de Valera J.

229CJA/05

DPP v MCCORMACK

IN THE MATTER OF SECTION 2 CFIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 1993

THE PEOPLE (AT THE SUIT OF THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS)

-v-

VINCENT McCORMACK

RESPONDENT

1 Judgment of the Court (ex tempore) delivered on the 27th day of April 2006 by McCracken J.

McCracken J.

2 In this case the accused pleaded guilty to two charges, one of dangerous driving causing death and one of drunken driving. The circumstances which give rise to this incident are that he had been at a party on the night of the 16^th/17^th December. He had gone home and had one hour's sleep approximately and then gone to work. After work he had gone to a further party, this being the Christmas period, where he consumed in the region of three to four pints of Guinness. He had had one hour's sleep in 24 hours. On his way home he was observed by two other drivers to be driving erratically and one of the other drivers, Mr Dolan, took it so seriously that he actually went to try to find a Garda in the Garda Station in Tulsk to report the driving. What ultimately happened was that the accused was apparently attempting to overtake a car when he was faced with another vehicle coming the other direction. Obviously nobody knows exactly what happened but the front left hand wing of his car hit into the rear of the car he was attempting to overtake, pushed it off the road and unfortunately there was a ditch with a stream on the side of the road. The car went into ditch on its back and the two persons in the car were drowned.

3 It was undoubtedly a piece of seriously bad driving. The trial judge in sentencing said that the accused was plainly out of his mind with drink and that it was a disgraceful piece of driving.

4 There was a lot of evidence given as to the character of the accused, which the trial judge considered. There was evidence from his employer. There was evidence from the local Parish Priest. The accused was a young man in his thirties, married with a young child and had apparently an extremely good work record. All the evidence appears to have been that driving a car when intoxicated was totally out of character for him.

5 The trial judge said that the maximum sentence which could be imposed in principle was enormous but,...