A drunk, speeding driver who was jailed for 18 months for a crash that claimed the life of a 16-year-old girl, causing her devastated father "never-ending pain", has had his jail term increased by a year by the Court of Appeal.
Michael Welby (24), of Loughgannon, Roscahill, was sentenced at Galway Circuit Court in July of last year, after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of teenager Róisín Hession after the car he was driving hit a wall in the townland of Porridgetown, Co Galway, in March 2020.
The sentencing court heard that Welby had been drinking and speeding on the night and was driving a car with defective tyres.
In a victim impact statement, Róisín’s father, Michael, said there was not a day that went by that he did not visit her grave, adding he cries every day when thinking of her.
In sentencing, Judge Brian O’Callaghan said the needs of society to deter others from dangerous driving meant that Welby had to go to prison. Judge O'Callaghan sentenced Welby to three years' imprisonment with the final 18 months suspended for two years.
On Monday, the State successfully appealed the sentence, submitting it was unduly lenient and that the headline, pre-mitigation sentence of five years identified by the trial judge was too low.
Ms Hession died as a result of a single-vehicle collision shortly after 1am on March 1st, 2020, when the car crashed on a local road at Porridgetown, Oughterard, after gardaí attempted to stop the speeding vehicle.
The court heardMs Hession and Welby had been socialising at a friend’s house in the Oughterard area and Welby had also been drinking at two pubs in the village that night.
Ms Hession had left the house to go home but got a lift from Welby, who drove towards Oughterard.
Blue lights
Garda Peter Naughton told the sentencing hearing he saw Welby’s Volkswagen Passat driving at speed and activated blue lights to get the car to stop.
However, Welby sped away and turned onto a country road where Gda Naughton later found the car crashed having flipped and collided with a bank of trees and then a wall 40 metres away.
Gda Naughton found Welby hanging out of the driver's side window and only upon further inspection saw that there was also a passenger, Ms Hession, in the car. Gda Naughton performed CPR on Ms Hession until paramedics arrived but she died at the scene.
Welby was tested for alcohol after the incident revealing the presence of 125mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.
Two of the car's tyres were also found to be dangerously defective, as was one wheel’s shock absorber. The Passat also had a tinted window sticker that allowed 18 per cent transparency when the legal limit was 60 per cent transparency.
Welby told gardaí he saw the flashing blue lights of the pursuing vehicle, but claimed he did not know the lights belonged to a Garda car.
On Monday at the three-judge Court of Appeal, Geri Silke BL, for the State, successfully argued that Welby's sentence was unduly lenient.
Ms Silke said Welby was driving at twice the legal limit and pointed out that the blood sample was taken over two hours after the crash. Ms Silke added that Welby "chose" to get into the car and had a knowledge of cars, knowing it had two bald tyres.
Counsel said Welby's five-year headline sentence had already been discounted by a "huge" 40 per cent down to three years' imprisonment before the suspended 18 months was applied.
Ms Silke said a 16-year-old girl had lost her life and the sentence was "simply too light".
Conall MacCarthy BL, for Welby, said the trial judge had given "careful consideration" to the construction of the sentence.
Mr MacCarthy said Welby had a good work history and no previous convictions to his name at the time and had entered a "genuinely remorseful" guilty plea and apology to the family. Mr MacCarthy said speed was the main cause of the fatal collision, adding his client had admitted this liability to gardaí.
Pursuit
Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy said Welby had sped up to avoid apprehension which led to a Garda pursuit.
Mr Justice John Edwards, presiding, said the case was a "heart-rending" one, given the harm done to the Hession family.
In quashing the original sentence, Ms Justice Kennedy said the sentence had been unduly lenient in a case of dangerous driving causing death.
Ms Justice Kennedy noted conditions on the day were poor in that a 'red' weather warning had been issued the day before and that Welby had been "reserved" in telling gardaí how much alcohol he had consumed.
Ms Justice Kennedy described the loss of Ms Hession as a "tragedy" for the family and the court noted her father was enduring "never-ending pain" and "devastation" in addition to the loss of Ms Hession's mother.
The judge said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had argued that the five-year headline sentence represented a "substantial departure from the norm" in such cases.
Ms Justice Kennedy said the aggravating factors in the case were that Welby drove at speed to avoid apprehension in a defective vehicle while over the limit, in bad conditions and that his "serious recklessness" led to a "tragic consequence".
The judge said the headline sentence of five years was to be quashed as it amounted to an error in principle.
Ms Justice Kennedy said the court would re-sentence Welby to a six-year headline sentence with two years discounted for his guilty plea and remorse. The judge said the court would apply the same 18-month suspended portion to the remaining four years, leaving two-and-a-half years to serve with a four-year driving ban still in place.
At the sentencing hearing, Mr MacCarthy said he was instructed to make a full apology to Mr Hession and the Hession family for “a series of catastrophic errors of judgement” by Welby that meant Ms Hession “lost her life at an age when no-one should”.
