Seven years for dangerous driving causing death

A young Belturbet man has been jailed for seven years for dangerous driving causing the death of a young Fermanagh woman in a high-speed crash last year.

Laoise Grace Nolan (21) was a rear centre-seat passenger in the Vauxhall Vectra driven by Jack McHugh that crashed on the N3 near Belturbet in the early hours of June 26, 2021.

In arriving at sentence, Judge John Aylmer considered what he described as a number of “very, very aggravating factors” in the case. They included that McHugh was driving under the influence of cannabis, had been caught driving with no insurance just 20 days previous, and that his car was clocked by a pursuing Garda travelling at a speed of up to 200 kmph mere minutes before crashing.

McHugh came before Cavan Circuit Court last week for sentencing.

At an earlier date in the sessions, the court heard how “unique” Ms Nolan had been.

“She lit up every room she entered, and lived every day like it was her last,” mum Deirdre Nolan wrote in an emotional victim impact statement read out by investigating garda Sergeant Dermot Lavin. “She was kind-hearted, generous and free-spirited. She loved her friends and family, and had hoped to start a family of her own someday. Unfortunately that wasn’t meant to be.”

In interview, McHugh, then aged just 20, explained to gardaí how he had the engine of his car “remapped” to override the manufacturer’s limiter. “I could have gone faster,” he admitted after being read the account of one witness who said the accused’s car had car shot past him “like a rocket”.

So fast was McHugh’s black Vectra travelling that it “shook” Paddy Smith’s own car. “In all my years of driving I’ve never seen a car travel that fast,” Mr Smith later told gardaí.

He had picked up his friend Christopher Small and then three girls including Ms Nolan in Lisnaskea the evening before, June 25, and said he was “stoned” when he saw the patrol car behind, “panicked” and “put the foot down and kept going”.

The court was informed that McHugh lost control of the car, struck the verge on the opposite side of the road, sending the car airborne for 21.5 metres before it crashed through a fence and into a field, before finally landing on its roof.

Ms Nolan was pronounced dead by a paramedic at 2:34am. Her mother Deirdre later identified her daughter from photographs taken of her tattoos.

Sgt Lavin knew McHugh prior to the crash. He came from a “good family” but had “gone off the rails”.

Before the court, McHugh, dressed in a white shirt, black tie, blue jeans, offered no excuse for his driving on the night, and apologised for the devastation he had caused. “I never meant for it to happen. I’m sorry.”

McHugh, now 21, and with an address at Annagh Park, Belturbet, was sentenced to seven years behind bars on the charge of dangerous driving causing death. The maximum sentence available to the court was 10 years’ imprisonment.

The fact that McHugh had earlier failed to stop for gardaí before leading them on a high-speed chase to the point where his car crashed at Cormacmullen, adjacent to the junction to the Old Belturbet Road, was also deemed an aggravating factor by the judge.

Regarding the other charges, of not having insurance or a licence, Judge Aylmer said McHugh had “acquired another vehicle” in the wake of being caught, which he then had “enhanced” to travel at greater speeds than regulated. “Of significance,” continued the judge, was that elements of the vehicle would later be flagged as “defective” and that these, coupled with the speed at which he was travelling, “seriously” contributed to the crash that occurred.

Mitigating factors were McHugh’s early plea, his co-operation with gardaí, and that the defendant appeared “remorseful” for his actions, now shunning trappings such as drugs and cars that landed him in trouble in the first instance.

A probation report placed McHugh at “moderate risk” of reoffending, and having consideration for the defendant’s age and “scope for rehabilitation”, Judge Aylmer suspended the final 12 months of the seven-year sentence for a year post release. McHugh was also banned from driving for 15 years.

The judge imposed five-month concurrent sentences on each of the other three counts pleaded to - dangerous driving at Cormacmullen, Belturbet; no insurance; and drug driving (cannabis).

A concurrent four-year ban was also imposed in respect of the no insurance and drug driving charges, and a nolle prosequi entered by State prosecutor, Monica Lawlor BL, on all remaining counts on the indictment.

McHugh was joined in court by members of his family.

Members of Ms Nolan’s family were also present for the sentencing.