A south Armagh driver high on a cocktail of drink and drugs when he ploughed into a group of cyclists at 80 m.p.h. last June, killing two and injuring four others, wept yesterday as he was jailed for six years, fined £1,500 and disqualified from driving for 10 years.
Belfast Crown Court heard that John McCann (21), from Lower Foughill Road in Jonesborough, first drove into two cyclists, killing Mr Michael McElroy (28), single, from Castlewellan, then ploughed though seven others, killing Mr Mark Wilson (32), who was married and from Dundrum.
Mr McElroy, first hit by the bonnet of the car, then the windscreen and finally the roof before being catapulted into the air, and Mr Wilson were on the return leg of last year's Co-operation North maracycle from Belfast to Dublin when killed just outside Newry on June 27th.
Relatives of the dead also wept as Mr Justice Gillen told McCann it beggared belief that, having driven in an aggressive manner through the cyclists, he ignored the carnage he had caused and drove away.
Mr Justice Gillen said it was scant excuse that McCann's offences were fuelled by alcohol and other substances, while it was understandable the families of the dead and injured should harbour feelings of revenge coupled with the outrage felt by the public at this cruel, avoidable loss of life.
He added that McCann, already a disqualified driver, had shown himself determined to flout the road traffic laws, and his driving, even before the accident, was dangerous.
But the judge accepted defence claims that a more mature and experienced man could have avoided the accident and that McCann wished he could turn the clock back. The tragic accident would haunt him for the rest of his days.