Woman pleads guilty to dangerous driving causing deaths of mother and daughter

A 21-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of a mother and daughter who drowned when their car ended up in a flooded dyke after a crash near their home in Cork last year.

Susan Gleeson (21) of Leitrim, Kilworth, Co Cork pleaded guilty on Wednesday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to dangerous driving causing the deaths of her neighbours, Geraldine (58) and Louise Clancy (22) at Ballyderown, Kilworth on December 22nd 2015.

Defence counsel, Jim O’Mahony SC applied for an adjournment saying that he had already obtained a report from a counsellor but he was seeking a report from a psychiatrist, while it would also allow for the preparation of a victim impact statement.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said that he was reluctant to order a psychiatric report unless there was some history of psychiatric difficulties prior to the incident at the centre of the charge, as that could delay the case by several months.

Mr O’Mahony said that there was no prior history of psychiatric difficulties and his client was anxious to have the matter finalised as quickly as possible as “the facts of this case are so sad for everybody involved, the circumstances so unfortunate.”

Judge Ó Donnabháin suggested that Mr O’Mahony might consider obtaining a report from a GP and Mr O’Mahony agreed.

Judge Ó Donnabháin adjourned the case until November 21st, remanding Gleeson on continuing bail to appear again on that date.

Ms Clancy and her daughter, Louise, who had just returned home for Christmas from the University of Sussex at Falmer near Brighton where she was on an Erasmus Exchange Programme from UCC, were on their way into Fermoy three days before Christmas when the fatal crash occurred.

An inquest earlier this year, Dr Jason Van der Velde pronounced Ms Clancy and her daughter dead at 12.20pm at the scene of the collision at Ballyderown, Kilworth after their upturned car was removed from the flooded dyke just off the Fermoy-Ballyduff Road.

The inquest also heard evidence from Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster who carried out post-mortems on both deceased at Cork University Hospital on December 23rd and that both Ms Clancy and her daughter died from acute cardio-respiratory failure due to drowning.