This article is from page 72 of the 2008-02-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 72 JPG
THE Christian attitude adopted by the family of a young man who lost his life in a road accident a year ago was commended by a judge, at the end of a trial relating to the death.
Judge Rory McCabe paid tribute to the family of Eamon Scully, after they expressed the opinion that they did not want to see a man convicted in connection with the death to go to jail.
James Freeman was acquitted of dangerous driving causing death, but was found guilty of careless driv- ing, arising out of a road accident in which Mr Scully lost his life, one year ago this weekend.
Counsel for the State Stephen Coughlan said Mr Scully’s family did not bear Mr Freeman any “ill will” and had no desire to see him sent to jail.
Mr Freeman’s barrister Michael Collins said the accident was “a low
speed collision, by way of both ve- hicles.” He said his client was genu- NIA U SON uNOROTE
He asked that his clent’s good character be taken into considera- tion, pointing out that he had no pre- vious convictions.
“Vd ask you to take into account the Christian attitude of Mrs Scully and family. The nature of the care- lessness of this case was an error of judgment,” said Mr Collins.
Judge Rory McCabe said the case
was “an enormous tragedy.”
“Life will never be the same for the two families and the two extended JE-VOODU O(c MaN Slomcr-BLOE
“The consequences for the Scully family are enormous. They lost a young man.
“Also for the Freeman family. Mr Freeman will live with this for the rest of his life,’ he said.
“I’m extremely impressed by the at- titude of the family of the deceased. It’s Christian. It’s caring. It recog-
nises the fact there are no winners,” he said.
“IT am not certain in the circum- stances a prison sentence would re- flect the circumstances in this situa- tion,” said the judge.
He fined Mr Freeman €1,000 said he was not imposing a driving ban, because, “I accept what was submit- ted by Mr Collins this was a momen- tary lapse of attention and I really hope it was not his decision to run the stop sign.”