A drunk driver who killed two French tourists has been given an eight-year sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
John Cash (27), of Sundale Green, Tallaght pleaded guilty in court to dangerous driving causing the deaths of Martine Talon (54) and Martine Liotard (53) at Kylemore Road, Ballyfermot, on May 16th, 2007. He also pleaded guilty to having no insurance on the same date.
Cash, a father of three, drank 14 cans of cider and a bottle of whiskey before driving the car. He has previous convictions for dangerous driving and had been banned from driving for 20 years in 2007.
Judge Katherine Delahunt imposed an eight-year sentence on the two charges of dangerous driving causing death and a concurrent six-month term for driving with out insurance, She banned Cash from driving for 15 years.
She expressed her condolences to the families of the two victims and said she hoped the passing of sentence would bring an element of closure to them.
The judge told Cash the deaths were “a result of your getting behind the wheel utterly intoxicated and having no regard to your history or that you were not allowed to drive".
The court was told that the two women had arrived in Ireland earlier that day on a holiday with more then 50 of their co-workers from south-east France. The women left their hotel in Bluebell with a friend just before 11 pm for a walk along the Kylemore Road.
A friend of the women saw a silver Lexus travelling at speed that hit a wall, travelled across to their side of the road and hit the victims, the court heard.
Cash was arrested, told gardaí that he had been a back seat passenger in the car and named another person as the driver. He refused to give urine and blood samples within the legal three-hour limit.
He later admitted to being the driver and told gardaí he had bought the Lexus at about 8 pm that evening for €2,000.
The court was told that Cash had drank 14 cans of cider, a bottle of whiskey and taken Prozac tablets on the day in an attempt to self-medicate his depression - and had little recall of the accident.