2021-12-21
'Abrupt' withdrawal from cannabis dependency led to psychosis, court told
Stage: Sentence
Plea: Guilty
Outcome: Passing sentence today, Judge Melanie Greally said El Taweel's "sequence of driving was prolonged and extremely dangerous and ultimately the inevitable occurred", referring to the fact that he collided with a taxi which was carrying a female passenger. The judge also accepted that El Taweel has since married and has a young son and a step-child, has completed a law degree and a probation report "has deemed him to be at a low risk of re-offending". "If he continues to be compliant with his medication and continues to abstain from use of cannabis, there is no reason to believe there would be a repetition of this kind of behaviour," Judge Greally said after noting that El Taweel has the full support of both his parents and his wife. "In normal circumstances the driving involved and the number of people exposed to danger and those who were in fa; Judge Greally acknowledged that El Taweel had €5,000 in court to offer as a token of remorse to the victims and adjourned the case to January 20 next to allow for this issue to be dealt with.