A man who admitted to dangerous driving causing the deaths of two Co Monaghan teenagers has been jailed for seven years.
61 year old Anthony McGinn of Drumloo, Newbliss pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of 17 year old Kiea McCann and 16 year old Dlava Mohammed.
He also pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to Dlava Mohammed's sister, Avin. Judge John Aylmer imposed the sentence of seven years at the sentencing hearing today at Monaghan Circuit Court.
The family of Kiea McCann say there is no justice for the loss of the two teenagers. Teresa McCann spoke to the media outside Monaghan Circuit Court earlier today.
The judge handed down a sentence of nine years at the local circuit court today with the final two years suspended. Judge John Aylmer sentenced Mr McGinn to seven years for each of the two charges to run concurrently and also disqualified him for driving for 15 years.
The Judge spoke to Mr McGinn as he handed down the sentence, “as a family friend of Mr McCann there was a level of trust paid to you when you brought these teenagers in your car. He said you had been-entrusted to drive the teenagers to their debs and you were guilty of an extraordinary breach of that trust by driving in the manner in which you did.
The court was told last week that McGinn's white BMW was estimated to be travelling over 150km/h in an 80km/h zone prior to the collision. His impact speed when the vehicle hit the base of the tree was 121.5km/h. On July 31st 2023, the two teenagers, Kiea and Dlava were making their way to the debs ball in the Westenra Arms Hotel in Monaghan Town along with Dlava's sister Avin.
The car they were travelling in, driven by Mr McGinn, struck a tree on the N54 at Legnakelly, Clones, killing Kiea, Dlava, and seriously injuring Avin.
Distressing scenes in court last week were evident when dashcam footage was shown to the court which showed the white BMW owned by Mr McGinn overtaking multiple cars before impacting with the tree at Legnakelly. Judge Alymer said today that the speed was almost double that of the speed limit and the wet conditions on the road that evening made for even worse conditions on that road at the time.
He added that even though “they pleaded with you to slow down, you didn’t.” The court was told that Mr McGinn had shown remorse for what he had did even though this wasn't communicated to the families.
