Bereaved father calls for life sentences for dangerous driving deaths in NI

By Claudia Savage, Press Association

A bereaved father has called for life sentences to be available for those found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

Peter Dolan, whose son Enda was 18 when he was killed by a drunk driver that mounted the pavement, said no-one in Northern Ireland has ever received the current maximum penalty of 14 years.

The Criminal Justice (Sentencing etc) Bill – which passed its second stage at Stormont in March – includes a set of wide-ranging reforms aiming to “strengthen and improve” the sentencing framework in the region.

Dolan, who has campaigned for tougher sentencing since his son’s death in 2014, gave evidence to the Northern Ireland Justice Committee at Parliament Buildings on Thursday.

He said the driver who killed his son was initially sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment, and three-and-a-half years on licence, before being raised on appeal to a further year both on imprisonment and licence.

“This, in our opinion, was not justice,” he told MLAs.

“Enda lost his life. Our family received a life sentence of grief. The offender received a custodial sentence measured in years.”

Dolan said the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving was raised from 14 years to life in England and Wales in 2022, but in Northern Ireland the 14-year maximum sentence remains.

“There is no principal justification for maintaining a lower maximum penalty when the consequence is the loss of human life,” he said.

“The reforms in England and Wales acknowledge that some driving offences are so grave and reckless that courts should have the power to impose life sentences where justified. Northern Ireland should adopt the same approach.

“A motor vehicle in the hands of a grossly intoxicated, drug-impaired or recklessly dangerous driver becomes a deadly weapon.

“Where there is an individual knowingly drives while heavily intoxicated or under the influence of drugs and causes death, the outcome is no less catastrophic than the use of any conventional weapon.”

Dolan said he understands that no one in Northern Ireland has ever received the current maximum sentence of 14 years of death by dangerous driving, and had not heard of “anybody exceeding nine years”.

Asked if he felt raising the maximum sentence would increase all sentences, he said: “It’s not necessarily increasing all sentences, it will help the situation.

“But whenever there are the worst-cases scenario, similar to our own, if life was there for the courts to use, and you would like to feel that instead of getting nine years, you’d be getting something higher up, and you’d leave that courtroom slightly happier.”

He later added: “In our situation, the individual got a maximum of nine years, half served in custody, the other half out on licence. That’s not fair.

“You think it should be a lot more than that, and the question was at that stage, why didn’t they use 14 years?

“So that was the start of our crusade to change the law, and I am hoping now that with what has happened, and certainly the Bill, and potentially if the Justice Committee see fit to make an amendment to the Bill, to make a major deterrent, bring it into parity and have that consistency with England Wales, and maybe somewhere along the line people, whenever they leave the court grieving families will be a wee bit happier they’ve been dealt a good hand.”