A man who was involved in a car race that resulted in the deaths of a priest and two other youths on the M50 has been jailed for two years.
Ernest Gore (21), from Dingle Road, Cabra, Dublin 7, pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment on March 11th, 2001. He had no previous convictions but has since been convicted of driving without insurance twice in incidents that predated this accident.
Father David Boylan (35) died in hospital after one of the cars, which were racing at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour, lost control and smashed into his Opel Vectra travelling on the opposite side of the motorway.
The two occupants of the speeding car, Robert Fitzsimons (27) and Jason Nugent (19), were also killed instantly.
Gore, the then 18-year-old driver of the second car, a Toyota Starlet, managed to bring his vehicle to a halt after he collided with a car driven by another person.
At the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today Judge Desmond Hogan, who also disqualified Gore from driving for 10 years, said that while there were mitigating factors, such as his young age and expression of remorse, if he balanced these against the aggravating factors a custodial sentence had to imposed.
"The driving of the cars was an act of pure, unadulterated and reckless bravado with little or no thought given to either other road users and to the consequences of their actions," he said.
"I also must have regard to the manner of the driving because there was evidence of the cars weaving in and out of cars in an attempt to gain an advantage over each other and win the race.
"While he was not driving the car that caused the fatalities, nonetheless he was part of the overall scenario and participated willingly. He must share the blame for the awful and tragic consequences of that day."
At a previous hearing, Gore's mother told Judge Hogan her son had been completely changed since the fatal accident and hadn't driven a car for two-and-a-half years. He was very sorry for what happened and not a day went by that he didn't think about it.
Gore tearfully told the court at that hearing: "I was only 18 and young and stupid. I don't know what got in to me. I was never involved in anything like that before and don't think I will ever drive again."