Sister of woman killed by drunk driver in Laois speaks out as driving ban appeal successful

A woman whose younger sister was killed when a drunk driver crashed in Portlaoise has spoken of the “thread of injustice” running through the Irish courts system.

Claire Hennessy was just 24-years-old when she died after a car driven by Brian Kelly crashed into a building on the Mountmellick Road in Portlaoise on October 18, 2008.

Kelly, of St Brigid’s Place, Portlaoise, was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for a period of two years, on December 15, 2009 by Judge Anthony Kennedy sitting at Portlaoise Circuit Criminal Court after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Claire Hennessy on October 18, 2008 contrary to S53 of the Road Traffic Act 1961. He was also disqualified from holding a driving licence for life.

A Garda Forensic Collision report carried out at the time noted that speed and alcohol intake were the sole reasons for the fatal incident.

Now aged 43, Kelly, who was 26 at the time of the crash, successfully appealed his sentence arguing that the imposition of a lifetime driving disqualification represented an error in principle on the part of the sentencing judge. The Court of Appeal reduced his disqualification to 20 years last week.

Claire Hennessy’s sister Yvonne attended the Court of Appeal on Monday.

“They brought that number to 20 years of which he has done 15 of them off the road. In terms of our system then he can now appeal that,” she explained.

“It is sickening. It is one of those things where your head spins because it doesn’t make any sense. He was given life off the road and they equated it to twenty years. Claire was 24, it is not even a year for every year of her life that she had. It just doesn’t make sense. I would have thought life off the road would be 90 years,” Yvonne remarked.

The Hennessy family already viewed the initial sentence of two years suspended and a lifetime driving ban as lenient.
“He got a two year suspended sentence while he got life off the road Claire died,” said Yvonne. “Claire died and it was horrific and he was taken off the road for life.”

In the last four years she said her family had become aware that he was enquiring about the length of the lifetime ban.
“The reason that we were told that he got a life ban was because of the severity of what happened on the night. He didn’t go to prison so that was the weighing up of the sentence, that is how we understood it,” Yvonne explained.

She and her family believed a prison sentence would have been more fitting in light of Claire’s death.
Yvonne has been monitoring sentences in the courts in Ireland with interest in recent times.

“When they said it, he is in his 40s and he needs to drive. That’s not justice. It’s not where the conversation should be when you are dealing with something like this. It is not how sentencing should happen,” Yvonne said.

Yvonne believes the Irish system is sending out the wrong message to road users.

Her family have many unanswered questions about what happened to Claire on the night she died.

“We have written to the Attorney General to ask for a new inquest to bring this back to zero. We want a new inquest for what happened that night and for all of the evidence to be looked at,” Yvonne said.

She said it had been nearly four years and the family, through their solicitor, has written to the Attorney General three times and have not had any response to date.

Christopher Stanley, Litigation Consultant with KRW, representing the family of Claire Hennessy said in a statement: “Following the decision of the Court of Appeal, KRW has again written to the Attorney General requesting an acknowledgement of the application that a fresh inquest is directed into the death of Claire Hennessy and that he makes a decision on that application very soon.

“It is hoped that local TDs will bring this matter to the Dáil and support the application made by Claire Hennessy’s family to the Attorney General for a fresh investigation to deliver truth, justice, and accountability regarding all the surrounding circumstances of her tragic death.”