A 19-year-old youth has been sentenced to three years in jail after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of two Kilkee, Co Clare, teenagers, three years ago.
At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Judge Con Murphy said David Naughton, then aged 15, "was on a campaign of dangerous driving" when he crashed the car in which Stacey Haugh (16) and Lorna Mahoney (13) were back-seat passengers, at Moyarta, Carrigaholt, on October 17th, 2003.
Garda John Ryan told the court that Naughton had purchased the 1984 Opel car from a friend in Galway for €60. In an interview with gardaí, Naughton said that it was the third car he had driven and he had been driving in fields since he was 12.
Martin Giblin SC, for Naughton, said "the circumstances in which a 15-year-old found himself behind the wheel of a car are bizarre. It is completely unacceptable to have a 15-year-old drive a car and is the equivalent of giving a 15-year-old a loaded gun. A tragedy was bound to happen."
At the time of the tragedy, Naughton was staying at Westside House, a home for homeless adolescents in Galway, and drove to Kilkee with three friends.
In evidence, Garda Ryan said that Naughton was seen rallying around Kilkee at 7.45pm on the night. A complaint was made to Kilrush Garda station by a member of the public that Naughton was driving dangerously.
Garda Ryan said Naughton met Stacey, her young brother Karl, and Lorna at the Loaves and Fishes fast-food takeaway in the town after 7.45pm and put pressure on the three to get into the back seat of the car.
Karl told gardaí that both Stacey and Lorna asked him to slow down, but he refused, while another driver saw Naughton drive "very aggressively" before he hit a sea wall at Carrigaholt at 70 to 80mph (113-130km/h)
Both Lorna and Stacey died at the scene, while Karl subsequently underwent heart surgery in Dublin with a 20 per cent chance of living, and survived.
Garda Ryan said Naughton initially claimed another red car was "joyriding" and put his own car off the road, he accused another person of crashing into the car; and said that gardaí were following him.
Mr Giblin said his client had led a feral existence from a young age with no proper parental supervision and had been sexually assaulted as a young boy.
Mr Giblin said Naughton asked him to apologise to the families on his behalf because he did not have the social skills to apologise directly to the families.
In relation to mitigating factors, the judge said Naughton was very young, had had no parental supervision, was on antidepressants, of low intelligence, and had pleaded guilty. As a result, he said, "I believe that the appropriate sentence is three years".
