Man jailed for 21 months after killing 60 year-old

Man jailed for 21 months after killing 60 year-old

19 January 2022

A 60 year-old Downpatrick man died in a fatal crash caused by a young driver “showing off” by driving at 80mph, a court heard last week. 

Neil Walsh (26), of Prospect Park, Ballygowan, was jailed for 21 months for causing the death by dangerous driving of Norman McNally.

At Downpatrick Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, last Friday, Judge Geoffrey Millar told Walsh he would serve a further 21 months on licence on his release and would also be banned from driving for four years.

Described by his family as a “thoroughly decent man”, Mr McNally was driving  home in his Proton car when he died in the crash on the Comber Road, Ballygowan, on June 20, 2018.

CCTV footage from the Texaco filling station on the Saintfield Road in Ballygowan showed Walsh and his girlfriend pulling out from a garage on the Saintfield Road in Ballygowan in separate cars. 

The court heard from a forensic scientist that over a distance of 61 metres on the 30mph Comber Road, Walsh’s BMW car was travelling was travelling at over 67mph.

A motorist gave evidence that he saw Walsh overtake and then “drive side by side” with his girlfriend’s car while other witnesses reported of hearing a car “driving at high speed” before the sound of the collision.

The rear of Mr McNally’s car was found lodged against a wall and the driver’s side badly damage and the driver unresponsive.

A prosecutor said: “The defendant’s BMW car was balanced on a small garden wall, with the nose of the car in the garden and it had dislodged a 30mph road sign.”

A mechanic by profession, Mr McNally was pronounced dead at 9.40pm at the scene and fire crews had to cut him free from the wreckage.

While he later pleaded guilty, Walsh initially claimed that Mr McNally had been driving on the wrong side of the road when his car hit him on a corner.

However, experts testified that the Proton was in its own lane at the time of the crash and estimated that it was hit at a speed over 80mph — 50mph over the speed limit. 

In a victim impact statement, Mr Colin McNally, described his brother as a “role model, a friend and a mentor…a thoroughly decent man who enjoyed the simple things in life. We miss him so much. His loss has changed our lives a lot, as if something has been ripped from us.”

In a pre-sentence report, Walsh expressed his “shame and remorse” for causing Mr McNally’s death.

Defence counsel Charles MacCreanor told the judge that Walsh accepted he was going to prison.

“This defendant is before you to be punished, to be punished for the serious failure of his driving on this road. He is to be punished for the life he has taken,” said Mr MacCreanor.

“He knows that Your Honour is going to impose a custodial sentence upon him. He also knows that that does not compare to the loss which has been suffered.”

Passing sentence, Judge Miller told Walsh that cars were “potentially lethal weapons”, adding: 

“On this evening you were indulging in risk-taking behaviour in an effort to show off to your former girlfriend.”