A young man was refused bail and returned for trial on Wednesday on charges that he drove dangerously causing the death of innocent nurse Aine O\u2019Reilly, while he was high on cannabis and \u201cfast gas\u201d.<\/p>\n
Keelan O\u2019Connell (19) allegedly fled the scene of the fatal collision and did not offer any assistance to Aine O\u2019Reilly nor to a second motorist who his car struck at the scene.<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed told Limerick District Court that Reilly, who was on her way to her workplace at the out-of-hours GP service, Shannondoc, suffered \u201ccatastrophic injuries\u201d in the collision and died at the scene.<\/p>\n
Loved ones of both O\u2019Reilly, late of Pallasgreen, Co Limerick, and O\u2019Connell, of Scanlon Park, Castleconnell, Co Limerick, attended the courthouse.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell, who has been in custody for the past seven months, was refused bail by Judge Catherine Ryan after the judge heard strenuous objections from investigating garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed told the court that the fatal collision occurred at the N24, Grange West, Boher, Co Limerick, on Friday, February 13th last.<\/p>\n
Objecting to bail, Garda Tony Burke, Henry Street Garda Station, said it was his view that O\u2019Connell would continue to commit further serious crimes if he was granted bail, including driving dangerously.<\/p>\n
Burke told the court it was his view O\u2019Connell would not meet any bail conditions and that he would pose a \u201cfurther risk of loss of life\u201d if allowed bail.<\/p>\n
The garda alleged that O\u2019Connell drove a \u201chigh-powered\u201d VW Golf \u201cat excess speed\u201d on the night in question.<\/p>\n
He further alleged that O\u2019Connell attempted a \u201cdangerous manoeuvre\u201d, undertaking a Peugeot car, before colliding with the driver, forcing the Peugeot into the path of O\u2019Reilly, who was driving a Nissan Micra.<\/p>\n
Garda Burke alleged that O\u2019Connell \u201cfled the scene on foot\u201d having also failed to offer assistance to O\u2019Reilly and the Peugeot driver.<\/p>\n
Although the collision occurred at 11.10pm at night, visibility was good, added the garda witness.<\/p>\n
Burke said that CCTV footage, as well as dashcam footage and statements provided from independent witnesses, provided \u201cstrong\u201d evidence against O\u2019Connell.<\/p>\n
Previously, it was heard that O\u2019Connell later presented himself to garda\u00ed for questioning a few days after the fatal collision.<\/p>\n
Burke said O\u2019Connell told garda\u00ed he had won the VW Golf in a raffle just days prior to the collision.<\/p>\n
The garda gave uncontested evidence that O\u2018Connell admitted being the driver of the VW Golf that allegedly caused the collision in which Ms O\u2019Reilly died.<\/p>\n
Garda Burke told the court O\u2019Connell also admitted to having been under the influence of cannabis and \u201cfast gas\u201d while driving the VW Golf on the night.<\/p>\n
Garda Burke also gave evidence of arresting Mr O\u2019Connell at the Limerick District Court today and charging O\u2019Connell with one count of causing serious bodily harm to the second motorist. This offence was added to the Book of Evidence against O\u2019Connell, which was then served on the accused in court.<\/p>\n
The court heard Mr O\u2019Connell did not reply to the charges.<\/p>\n
Judge Catherine Ryan gave O\u2019Connell what is known as the \u201calibi warning\u201d, meaning he must provide the State with any alibi witness\/evidence he may rely on at trial within the next 14 days.<\/p>\n
The judge said O\u2019Connell was entitled to the \u201cpresumption of innocence\u201d until proven otherwise. She said she was satisfied, on hearing Garda Burke\u2019s objections to bail, to refuse bail and remanded O\u2019Connell in continuing custody for trial before the next sittings of the Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young man was refused bail and returned for trial on Wednesday on charges that he drove dangerously…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-598346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}