Maurice Power loses dangerous driving appeal

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Maurice Power’s seven-year sentence, with its final 12 months suspended, was upheld by the Court of Appeal on 1 November 2016. His sentence also included a 25-year driving disqualification.

He had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to Fiona O’Connell. Judge Thomas Teehan imposed the sentence at Clonmel Circuit Criminal Court on 31 July 2013. The proceedings were reported on 2 November 2016.

Power was uninsured, disqualified and three times over the legal limit when he injured O’Connell on the Fethard Road, Co Tipperary, on 12 November 2012. Justice Garrett Sheehan said Power lost control of his vehicle, which went through an institution’s boundary wall and carried O’Connell, who was walking home, into its grounds.

O’Connell described having her leg amputated despite 14 operations to save it and spending four months in hospital. Justice Sheehan said Power remained at the scene and tried to help before gardaí arrested him.

Power’s lawyers argued that the sentencing judge placed the offences too high on the scale and gave insufficient weight to mitigation. Justice Sheehan said Power had 51 previous convictions, mainly for road traffic matters. The report noted a previous drink-driving conviction and that he had been disqualified more than once.

Justice Sheehan, sitting with Justice George Birmingham and Justice Alan Mahon, said the injuries and aggravating factors justified a seven-year starting point. The sentencing judge had marked the mitigating circumstances by suspending the final 12 months. The Court of Appeal found no error in principle and dismissed the appeal.