A gangland criminal who caused the death of 21-year-old student Joe Drennan in a hit-and-run case where he had filmed himself speeding just moments before, is to serve an extra five years in prison.
On Thursday, the Court of Appeal ruled his original eight-year jail sentence for this and other offences was unduly lenient.
In resentencing Kieran Fogarty (21) to a total of 14 years in prison with the final year suspended, Ms Justice Tara Burns noted the serious impact his actions had on Mr Drennan’s family.
The young student was killed on the Dublin Road in Limerick on October 13th, 2023.
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She described the victim as “an exceptional young man with a promising career ahead of him”, whose death had a devastating effect on his parents and siblings.
Speaking outside the court after sentencing, Mr Drennan’s sister Sarah said the decision would finally “get some measure of justice for Joe”.
“Nothing can ever bring him back, but this acknowledges that his life mattered, that what happened to him was not an accident or mistake but a deliberate act of reckless and criminal behaviour,” she said.
She described Joe as a “kind, funny, compassionate” man who was missed every single day by the family. She said the court’s decision would now bring them a “small sense of peace”.
Last January, Fogarty, of Hyde Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick, was sentenced by Judge Colin Daly at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court to 6½ years after he pleaded guilty to charges in respect of Drennan’s death by dangerous driving.
He also received an eight-year sentence for a drive-by shooting in June of the same year, with the sentences will run concurrently. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) subsequently appealed the undue leniency of the sentences.
At Thursday’s Court of Appeal, CCTV footage was played by Insp Padraig Sutton. He told counsel for DPP , Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing SC, that the footage showed Fogarty driving past a patrol car, which led to the gardaí activating their lights and pursuing him.
He said Fogarty’s car drove at speed, narrowly avoiding a collision with oncoming traffic. The garda car then lost sight of him and travelled in the opposite direction.
The court then viewed footage taken by Fogarty himself on his phone while he was driving, which Insp Sutton indicated that Fogarty was travelling at a minimum of 100km/h. Further CCTV footage showed Fogarty’s car travelling at 122km/h in a 50km/h zone before it crashed.
After the collision, which Insp Sutton said had left Drennan underneath Fogarty’s BMW, Fogarty spent 14 seconds in the car wiping it down before he fled the scene.
Mr Ó Dúnlaing said the headline sentence of 10 years for the dangerous driving causing death offence had been absolutely correct, but the sentencing judge had not considered that Fogarty was before the court for other offences that were “not part and parcel” of the same incident.
He confirmed to the court that it was the DPP’s view that, when the sentencing judge took the other offences into consideration, there should have been consecutive sentences imposed.
He said that the judge had erred in “fixing 10 as a ceiling and leaving it as that,” with the error being that concurrent sentences were imposed for all offences.
Mr Ó Dúnlaing said that the only mitigating factors were Fogarty’s early plea of guilty and his young age. He went on to say that the sentencing court also looked at “his bravado and attitude afterwards”, juxtaposing these with Drennan, a young man who was just starting off on his career.
