Five years for dangerous driving causing serious harm

The husband of a woman left with catastrophic and life-altering injuries following a serious road crash three and a half years ago has been jailed for five years.

Patrick O’Reilly (56), of Kate's Cottage, Corduff, initially denied a charge of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to his wife, Karen O’Reilly, when the case was listed for trial in June. The trial was expected to last a week.

He also pleaded not guilty to driving a defective vehicle on the same occasion, when the 10D-registered Volkswagen Golf in which Mrs O’Reilly — also known as Kate — was travelling left the road at Clonoose, Ballyheelan, Kilnaleck, on June 6, 2022.

However, Mr O’Reilly later changed his plea and Judge John Aylmer reserved sentencing to the December circuit sittings, where a victim impact statement was read to the court by Ms O’Reilly’s sister, Michelle Reilly.

Ms Reilly, who attended court with her mother Marian, told the court that her sister now requires round-the-clock care as a result of what she described as a “bad car accident due to negligence”.

“She needs 24/7 care and has no power on one side of her body. She can’t talk, is PEG-fed and wears a nappy due to this accident,” she said. “This is an incident that should never have happened and has left us devastated. She will never return home again or engage with us through birthdays or social events. I think her life was taken from her at a very young age by the driver of this car.”

Garda Keith McGuire gave evidence that he was on patrol with Sergeant David Pettitt in the early hours of the morning on a narrow roadway known locally as the “bog road” at Annagh, Kilcogy, when they encountered Mr O’Reilly’s VW Golf approaching from the opposite direction.

Due to the manner of the driving and what he described as “suspicious” movement at that hour, a decision was made to follow the car. Garda McGuire said the vehicle then accelerated in an apparent attempt to get away from gardaí.

He described the road surface as “extremely bumpy” and subject to a 60km/h speed limit, but said the car did not appear to slow down. From the way it was being driven, Gda McGuire observed sparks as the vehicle bottomed out against the road surface.

When the patrol car briefly lost sight of the vehicle as it went around a bend, gardaí came upon debris at the scene where the car had entered on its side into a ditch below road level.

There were three people in the vehicle driven by Mr O’Reilly. Mrs O’Reilly was found slumped in the passenger-side footwell, unconscious and having suffered a serious head injury.

Emergency services were called to the scene, and Mr O’Reilly made admissions to gardaí at the roadside. “I hit a bump and flew in,” he said, blaming soft tyres and adding that the car’s “shocks are gone”.

A forensic collision investigator examined the vehicle the following day. The inspection found excessive wear to both rear tyres, rear suspension and shock absorbers, as well as excessive wear to the front suspension ball joint.

Mr O’Reilly later provided a urine sample to gardaí, which returned an alcohol reading of 80mg per 100ml. He received a fixed charge penalty notice and a three-month driving ban.

'Catastrophically injured'

The prosecution case was presented to the court by Frank Martin BL, instructed by State Solicitor Fiona Baxter. He said Mrs O’Reilly was left “catastrophically injured” following the crash and required life support in the ICU at Cavan General Hospital before being immediately transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. She remained there for a “number of weeks” and underwent several “serious” surgical procedures.

A medical report contained in the Book of Evidence detailed Mrs O’Reilly’s admission to Cavan General Hospital, where it was found she had suffered a skull fracture with a three-centimetre shard of bone depressed into her brain.

A further report from consultant neurosurgeon Stephen MacNally of Beaumont Hospital stated that surgeons carried out two operations on the day of the crash, with a third operation performed the following week.

Despite medical intervention, Mrs O’Reilly was given a “poor prognosis” for recovery. She has been left unable to talk or move and is now in a “very poor condition”.

Dr Ese Nzewi, a GP who attends Mrs O’Reilly at the nursing home where she now resides, described her injuries as “life-changing”.

Previous

O’Reilly has five previous convictions. The most recent was in February 2026 at Longford District Court, where he was fined for threatening or abusive behaviour in a public place, with a charge of intoxication taken into consideration. In 2008, he received a suspended sentence for assault causing harm; in 1999, a suspended sentence for assaulting a minor; and in 1997, a conviction for assault. He has no previous convictions for road traffic offences.

Meat trade worker O’Reilly was represented by Paul Grene SC, instructed by Breffni Gordon BL and solicitor Martin Cosgrove.

Mr Grene said his client acknowledged the “awful harm” caused to his wife.

“He is a man who has provided for his family all his life,” counsel said, adding that O’Reilly regularly visits his wife. “He is remorseful for what happened.”

Mr Grene said the car O’Reilly was driving had only recently been purchased. While he accepted that his client had been drinking and was “on the wrong side of what is allowed”, he added that “nobody goes out to do these things”.

Mr Martin asked Judge Aylmer to have regard to the Flynn decision, which sets a sentencing benchmark in cases where a driver has pleaded guilty to causing injury or death while under the influence of alcohol.

'Appalling' injuries

Judge Aylmer described Mrs O’Reilly’s injuries as “appalling” and said their consequences would affect her family forever.

Referring to a probation report before the court, the judge noted that O’Reilly admitted to consuming six pints of alcohol on the day in question. “He should not have been driving,” the judge said, describing this as an aggravating factor that placed the offence in the “mid-range”, meriting a six-year sentence.

In terms of mitigation, Judge Aylmer said there was “not a lot of it”, noting that O’Reilly had entered a late guilty plea and that his sense of responsibility appeared limited.

While rehabilitation was encouraged, the judge said the probation report suggested it was “unlikely” O’Reilly would engage. In relation to alcohol use, the defendant did not believe he had a problem, and in respect of mental health issues, he had been discharged from care “years ago”.