The Court of Appeal has refused the Director of Public Prosecutions’ application to review as unduly lenient the sentence imposed on Michael Lucey for a fatal road collision in Ballingeary, Co Cork.
Lucey pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and drunken driving in November 2023, then to a further count of dangerous driving in February 2024. He was sentenced the following day to three years’ imprisonment on the fatal-driving count, with the final 18 months suspended. Six-month sentences on each of the other counts were to run concurrently. The sentencing judge also disqualified him from driving for five years on the first count and two years on the third.
The collision happened at about 1.10am on 13 December 2022, after two funeral receptions in the village. The judgment says a car driven by Lucey struck a group of mourners exchanging condolences on the main street. Gobnait Twomey died at the scene and others were injured. A urine sample contained 179 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres, above the legal limit of 67 milligrams.
Evidence before the sentencing court was that the road was narrow and poorly lit, the group wore dark clothing, and it was difficult to see them until the car was about five metres away. The car travelled through the village at an average speed of 27.3km/h, below the speed limit. No vehicle defect was found that could have caused or contributed to the collision.
The DPP argued that the sentencing judge gave too much weight to mitigation, including the early guilty plea, and that the effective sentence was insufficient. Lucey’s lawyers said the sentence reflected the particular circumstances of the offence and offender, and that the plea warranted credit.
The Court of Appeal said the DPP had to show that the difference between the sentence imposed and the sentence that ought to have been imposed amounted to an error of principle. It accepted that the sentence was lenient, possibly “very lenient”, but said the judge had carefully considered the case. The court held that a 30% reduction for the very early plea fell within the judge’s discretion, and that the wider mitigation justified reducing the sentence to three years.
The court said the central issue was the suspension of the final 18 months. It was not persuaded the DPP had met the threshold for intervention and refused the application. The sentence and driving disqualifications therefore remained in place.