A 22 year old man who was involved in an incident which resulted in the death of a young Donegal-based Garda has been disqualified from driving for 30 years.
Cathal Dunleavy was with another man Jamie McGrenaghan when the pair stole a car on the Tara Court estate on the outskirts of Letterkenny in March, 2009.
While making their escape, Garda Robbie McCallion, 29, was knocked down and killed as he set up a roadblock to stop Dunleavy and McGrenaghan.
In March 2010 Dunleavy was found guilty of taking a car on the night of the horrific events which led to the young Garda’s death and sentenced to three years in prison.
Gardai told Letterkenny District Court yesterday that they had witnessed Dunleavy driving on at least two occasions when disqualified since.
He had previously been disqualified for a total of 15 years for other road traffic offences in 2008.
On one occasion he was a passenger in a car which had been stolen and later found burnt out in Rathmullan o November 13th, 2011.
And on two other occasions on October 2nd and 15th, 2011, he was observed by Gardai driving a grey Honda Civic car.
On one of those occasions he came to Garda attention when he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and had a hoodie pulled up over his head.
Dunleavy of Meentagh, Glenvar, Kerrykeel, took off at speed on both occasions and was not caught on the dates.
However he accepted later that it must have been him driving the car.
Defence solicitor Donagh Cleary told the court that Dunleavy had the car a number of years.
He said that the majority of his cases were related to cars and that because his parents had split at a young age, he went unsupervised.
Judge Paul Kelly described the incidents as “absolutely dreadful road offences.”
He sentenced Dunleavy to a total of nine months in jail on a range of offences including driving while disqualified and driving without insurance and banned him from driving for a total of 30 years.
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