A retired priest who lost control of his car and struck mourners gathered outside a Dublin church, leading to the death of one man and serious injury to three others, has been given a suspended sentence.
Fr Denis Foley (93) arrived to the funeral Mass of the son of a parishioner at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Convent Road, Clondalkin in June 2018. A man then noticed the priest struggling to get out of his vehicle and offered to help.
He held the priest’s walking stick as Fr Foley struggled with his seatbelt but the priest’s vehicle rolled into the car parked in front before coming back and swinging to the right. The man who had been assisting him jumped out of the way before the vehicle took off at speed.
The court heard that the incident which followed lasted about two minutes with the car speeding through the crowd, hitting off vehicles and ploughing into people before it ultimately crashed into bollards with three people pinned under the vehicle.
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Christopher Phillips (78), who was seriously injured in the incident died, in Tallaght Hospital the following month. A postmortem concluded that he died of multiple organ failure as a result of being struck by the car.
Fr Foley pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to driving a vehicle in a manner which was dangerous to the public and thereby causing the death of Mr Phillips and causing grievous body harm to Jason Kelly, Martin Cawley and Rebecca Meredith on June 25th, 2018.
He had been the parish priest in nearby Walkinstown but had retired 13 years earlier. He now lives in a nursing home.
Knocked into the air
The court heard that Fr Foley’s vehicle initially struck about 10 people, seven of whom were knocked into the air, with the other three people going under the car.
Eoin Lawlor BL prosecuting said the car essentially ricocheted along before it struck and mounted bollards in the church grounds, pinning three men in the process.
The court heard that Ms Meredith had eight fractures to her left foot and severe bruising and tissue damage to her back. She has not recovered any feeling to the back of her left ankle.
Mr Kelly had multiple fractures to his legs and knees and required an operation, while Mr Cawley suffered broken ribs, which led to his lungs being punctured. His pelvis was also cracked in two places and he uses a walking frame.
The court heard that when the car ultimately came to a stop, a member of the Dublin Fire Brigade who happened to be at the church, approached Fr Foley and found him to be dazed and confused. He had an injury to his nose. The man took the priest’s foot off the accelerator and put the car into park.
The priest later said he was terribly sorry. He said it was an automatic car and that he “must have pushed the stick the wrong way”. He later told gardaí that the car moved quickly forward and he did not know what caused it to move so fast.
Not confident
He said he was not confident in the car. He thought he could find a better parking space and was attempting to move the car but “it took off on me”. He said he would have to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life and expressed concern for those who had been injured.
In a victim impact statement, the Phillips family said their father was always one “to please others” and “support others around him”. They said he would have wanted his family to get on with their lives.
They said they understood that nobody set out to hurt anyone that day but spoke of their disappointment that nobody from the church had reached out to them following the death “of our wonderful Dad” considering the accident had happened on church grounds and the driver was a priest.
Other victim impact statements from those injured that day were handed into court but not read out.
Judge Martin Nolan said it was a terribly tragic situation and Fr Foley’s driving caused “mayhem” and people had to “scamper for safety”.
“He killed a lovely man and caused considerable injury to many others,” said Judge Nolan, who offered his condolences to the Phillips family.
However, he said Fr Foley did not deserve a custodial sentence.
“He will not drive again. Whatever time that is left to him he will probably spend in a nursing home,” Judge Nolan said as he imposed concurrent sentences of 18 months which he suspended in full.