Courts

Best man escapes jail after causing groom’s death while ‘showing off’ in car on morning of wedding

Groom Myles Harty (20), from Askeaton, Co Limerick, died after best man and cousin Shane Harty lost control of car in which they were travelling and hit a wall

Myles ‘Miley’ Harty. Photograph: Facebook
Myles ‘Miley’ Harty. Photograph: Facebook
David Raleigh
Mon Nov 25 2024 - 21:49

A man who pleaded guilty to careless driving causing his cousin’s death on the morning of his wedding was on Monday given a fully suspended 18-month jail sentence and a five-year road ban.

The groom, Myles “Miley” Harty (20), from Askeaton, Co Limerick, died after his best man and cousin, Shane Harty, lost control of a car in which they were travelling and hit a wall.

The car became airborne and inverted after hitting the wall and a telephone pole which smashed through the car’s front windscreen and impacted with Myles Harty’s head, killing him instantly.

Following his arrest, Shane Harty admitted to gardaí that he had been speeding and “showing off” while he drove Myles Harty and another cousin, Daniel Harty, to a 24-hour shop in Rathkeale situated near their homes in Askeaton, Co Limerick.

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The car left the Askeaton to Rathkeale road and landed on its roof sometime between midnight and 1am on August 21st, 2021, Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard.

Shane Harty was initially charged with one count of dangerous driving causing Mr Harty’s death. However a week prior to his trial, the State accepted his plea of guilt to a lesser offence of careless driving causing Mr Harty’s death, which carries a sentence of a maximum of two years in jail and/or a €10,000 fine.

Myles Harty was due to marry Kate Quilligan at St Munchin’s Church, Limerick city, later that day.

Shane Harty (21), of Tola Park, Shannon, Co Clare, told gardaí he regretted “everything” and would have driven “a lot slower” if he had the opportunity to go back in time to the morning in question. He added: “I’m sorry it happened, it shouldn’t have happened.”

Kate Quilligan wrote in her victim-impact statement, which was read to the court: “Every morning I wake up I relive the nightmare of that day. It will never leave my mind.”

“It should have been the happiest day of my life ... it has shattered so many lives and robbed our son, Miley, of his father.”

Shane Harty’s barrister, Brian McInerney SC, had asked sentencing judge Colin Daly to consider a number of mitigating factors in his judgment.

Mr McInerney said Shane Harty was genuinely remorseful, he had no previous convictions, he had a clean driver’s licence on the night; he had co-operated with gardaí; and he had no traces of alcohol or drugs in his system at the time of the crash.

The judge said no sentence would bring Myles Harty back to his family.

After extending his sympathies to Myles Harty’s family, the judge concluded: “Shane Harty will have to live with this for the rest of his life. I’m quite sure that living with the consequences will ensure Shane Harty will change his attitude to speed.”