The Court of Appeal upheld James O’Donovan’s conviction for dangerous driving causing death but quashed his seven-year prison sentence and resentenced him to five years, with the final 12 months suspended. It also left in place a 30-year driving disqualification imposed by the Circuit Court.
O’Donovan was convicted at Naas Circuit Court on 3 February 2015 over a crash at Youngstown, Athy, on 27 December 2011. The crash killed Theresa Kiely, who was driving a Toyota Prius, and Rosanna Potts, who was a passenger in O’Donovan’s Mitsubishi Pajero. Kiely’s daughter Leanne, also in the Prius, was injured.
O’Donovan appealed both his conviction and the severity of his sentence. His conviction appeal focused on the trial judge’s directions to the jury about reasonable doubt and conflicting expert evidence. Garda road-collision investigator Rachel Murdiff and defence forensic engineer Colin Glynn disagreed about tyre marks on a grass verge and where O’Donovan lost control of the Pajero.
The appeal court said the trial judge’s direction that jurors should choose the view consistent with innocence where there were two ways of looking at the case was adequate in the circumstances. The court said the direction could only have been understood as referring to the conflict between the experts, the case’s only real evidential conflict. It rejected the conviction appeal, while explaining that jurors should critically assess conflicting evidence and need not automatically choose the view favourable to the accused merely because two views are possible.
On sentence, the court found that seven years was “unduly severe” for a serious case involving two deaths. It also ruled that the Circuit Court judge had made an error in principle by treating O’Donovan’s decision to blame Potts as an aggravating factor. The appeal court said he was entitled to raise the couple’s argument before the crash as part of his defence, having mentioned it to gardaí immediately after the collision.
The court considered the deaths, the injuries to Leanne Kiely and O’Donovan’s previous convictions, including an earlier dangerous-driving conviction, when assessing the case. It set a five-year sentence and suspended its final year to encourage rehabilitation.