A Dublin man who left his dying friend in a car which he crashed in the Phoenix Park after consuming up to eight drinks has been jailed for four years.
Paul Warner (24) of North Circular Road, Dublin 7 was doing “handbrake turns” in the park late at night when his car crashed into a metal fence and one of the rails fatally impaled Mark Carroll (16), who was in the passenger seat.
Warner pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to dangerous driving causing death on Wellington Road.
The court was told Warner was showing Mr Carroll a car he was planning to sell to him when he crashed into the railing.
Witness Sorcha Scanlon told gardaí she heard tires squealing and an engine revving and saw a car go “screaming past” the car park. She said when she was leaving the park she saw the car at the fence with its doors open and lights on.
She alerted gardaí before she looked inside the car and found the body of Mr Carroll. She said knew he was dead and the railing had come through the car and pierced his chest. Gardai cordoned off the scene and found documents in the car addressed to Warner.
The next day they called to his house and arrested him. He told gardaí he was out drinking that day and had up to eight bottles and pints. He admitted he was driving dangerously in the park and was going at 80 km/h when he lost control of the car and crashed.
He said he released his seat belt and tried to release Mr Carroll’s but “it was stuck”. He claimed Mr Carroll was conscious and told him to go. He said he fled out of the park, stopping someone along the way to ask them to call an ambulance. He then went to his girlfriend’s house.
He said it was only afterwards that he realised how bad the victim’s injuries were. He told gardaí Mr Carroll was encouraging him to drive dangerously. He also claimed he was intending to hand himself in to gardaí at some point.
Garda Sergeant Aidan Hann said Warner was very cooperative in interview and “shouldered all the blame.”
Judge Frank O’Donnell acknowledged Warner’s remorse and suspended the final two years of the sentence.