{"id":601000,"date":"2026-08-22T08:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T08:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601000\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T08:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T08:06:12","slug":"teenagers-killed-on-m9-regarded-as-among-most-prolific-and-dangerous-joyriders-countrywide-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601000\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenagers killed on M9 regarded as among most prolific and dangerous joyriders countrywide \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two of the five teenagers killed in the M9 motorway crash <\/a>last weekend were regarded by garda\u00ed as being among the most prolific and problematic so-called joyriders in the State. <\/p>\n

The Irish Times <\/a>has learned they had been discussed at Garda meetings about the most serious and dangerous offending across the country in recent months.<\/p>\n

Sources familiar with the policing challenges posed by joyriding nationally said both Kamil Pustkowski (17) from Limerick and Jack Kennedy (17) from Athy, Co Kildare, were considered to be among the top 10 most prolific young offenders on the roads of the Republic.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0From attempted break-ins to the fatal collisionOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed were closely monitoring their crimes and carrying out multiple investigations into them at the time of their deaths. <\/p>\n

In the case of Pustkowski, garda\u00ed investigating his crimes had already secured an order enabling them to secure all of the data related to his multiple TikTok accounts, where he shared videos of his joyriding.<\/p>\n

Pustkowski would record himself inside vehicles, with others, engaging in dangerous driving on the roads, including wrong-way driving on motorways where head-on crashes were narrowly avoided. <\/p>\n

Though based mostly in Dublin, he committed his offences across the country, often multiple times each week, as far from his home as Monaghan.<\/p>\n

The order to secure Pustkowski\u2019s TikTok data formed part of Garda efforts to conclusively link him to the accounts, and the crimes they glorified, as well as mapping as many of his joyriding sorties as possible.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, garda\u00ed also expected Kennedy would have faced charges relating to a near-fatal incident in Carlow last month in which a stolen Ford Ranger \u2013 a large utility vehicle \u2013 was driven over a motorcyclist as the driver tried to escape from garda\u00ed. The injured man\u2019s skull split, resulting in a brain injury from which he continues to recover.<\/p>\n

Kennedy had been arrested on the day but had abandoned the vehicle by the time he was detained. Garda\u00ed were awaiting the results of forensic testing, which they expected would link Kennedy and three others to the Ranger, before they could be charged.<\/p>\n

Kennedy and Pustkowski were regarded as being among the most active joyriders who engaged in extreme offending, alongside a small number of young men based in Tallaght-Clondalkin, Dublin. The leaders of another west Dublin group that once killed a man, whose identity cannot be revealed at this time, are also among the Garda\u2019s biggest joyrider targets.<\/p>\n

Pustkowski and Kennedy were killed when a BMW they were in drove the wrong way up the M9 at Moone, Co Kildare, and crashed into a Hyundai carrying three sisters from Carlow and one of their sons (7), all of whom remain in hospital.<\/p>\n

Jeremy O\u2019Brien (18) from Carlow, Joe \u201cJoey\u201d Carthy (15) from Athy, and Alex McCarthy (17) from Carlow were also in the BMW with Pustkowski and Kennedy. All were killed in the crash at about 3am last Sunday.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Carthy\u2019s funeral, the youngest to die, was held at St Michael\u2019s Church, Athy, while Pustkowski was cremated at Shannon Crematorium, Shannon, Co Clare.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0First funerals of teenagers killed in M9 collision take placeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

McCarthy\u2019s funeral took place in Askea, Co Carlow.<\/p>\n

A vigil was held last night at St Clare\u2019s Church in Graiguecullen, Carlow, for the three women \u2013 Alma and Niamh Kinsella and Ella Hendricken \u2013 and the boy who were seriously injured. They were struck by the BMW as they were travelling from their homes in Carlow to Dublin Airport to fly to Britain for a family wedding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of the five teenagers killed in the M9 motorway crash last weekend were regarded by garda\u00ed as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1346,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-601000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-garda-siochana","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601000","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=601000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}