Teenage ‘desperado’ jailed after high speed chase

A teenager who sent customers from a Cork pub fleeing for cover when he sped through a village at high speed in a stolen minibus late at night has been jailed for 18 months.

Trevor Hegarty (18) of Gurranabraher Avenue, Cork, pleaded guilty to five counts of criminal damage and one count of unlawful taking of the mini-bus in Cork on April 10th 2014.

Describing Hegarty as "a desperado", Judge David Riordan sentenced him to three years in jail but suspended the final 18 months while he also banned him from driving for five years.

Garda Keith Aher told Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday that Hegarty was drunk when he was finally arrested after crashing the stolen Mercedes mini-bus at Lower Killeens near Blarney.

Gardaí found beer and cider cans scattered on the floor of the minibus following the 10-mile escapade by Hegarty who had his pregnant girlfriend with him in the stolen mini-bus.

Garda Aher said the entire incident took about 50 minutes from the time Hegarty drove off in the stolen bus from Langton’s Yard on Dublin Hill in Cork shortly after 11pm on April 10th.

Hegarty crashed the bus into a number of parked vehicles en route causing thousands of euro in damage including the writing off of the €9,000 Mercedes minibus, the court heard.

Gardaí tried to stop the dangerously driven minibus at Blackstone Bridge but he ignored sirens and blue flashing lights to drive on to Killard and out to Blarney.

At one point, the Blarney patrol car was blocking his passage so he drove up on to the footpath with the undercarriage of the mini-bus hitting the pavement to send sparks flying.

The minibus drove through Blarney village at 40km per hour sending customers exiting from a local pub running for cover as they sought to get out of its way as it careered about the road.

The Blarney patrol car managed to get ahead of the minibus exiting the village so as to warn oncoming traffic as Hegarty was driving without any lights in total darkness.

But Hegarty went to overtake the patrol car at the crest of a hill in Killard and continued on his wrong side despite seeing the lights of an oncoming car heading for him.

Gardaí in the patrol car had to brake hard to allow Hegarty overtake them and come back on to his correct side. The oncoming car ended up colliding with a ditch on its own side, the court heard.

The actual pursuit, which involved several Garda cars from Cork city and Blarney lasted for about 20 minutes, and eventually came to an end when Hegarty crashed in Lower Killeens.

Between the damage to the bus and the damage to other vehicles and two garden walls at Dublin Hill at the start of the escapade the damage came to had to well over €20,000.

Garda Aher agreed with defence barrister, John Devlin BL that Hegarty had a troubled upbringing and had a dependency on alcohol and prescription drugs at the time

Judge Riordan noted Hegarty had co-operated fully with gardai when arrested as well as his guilty plea to all charges which had saved the state the expense of a trial.

He also had to take account of Hegarty’s highly dysfunctional family background and the fact that he was just 18 at the time of the incident.

However the incident itself was very serious and he could not ignore that after hearing the full details of the escapade and Hegarty’s failure to stop for gardaí on several occasions

“It conjures up images of a desperado being chased all over the place. He was not stopping and when required to do in fact he was challenging the Blarney patrol car,” he said

He sentenced Hegarty to three years in jail with 18 months suspended and backdated the sentence to May 24th last when Hegarty went into custody on the charges.