A North Cork woman has told how her family were left devastated after her husband was killed in a hit and run incident as he was walking back to his hotel in Cork city to catch a flight home to spend Christmas with them.
Helen Murphy Lawlor from Millstreet told how her life and the lives of her three children, Jennifer (20), Samuel (16) and Rebecca (14) were changed irrevocably when her husband, Dr Martin Lawlor (49) was killed in Cork.
A consultant psychiatrist, Dr Lawlor worked with the HSE in Cork but lived in Manchester with his family and was returning to Cork Airport to get a flight back to the UK when he was killed on Kinsale Road on December 15, 2018.
We will never forgive you - Cork taxi driver jailed for psychiatrist s hit-and-run death
The judge said it was callous not to have remained at the scene of the collision.
Denis McSweeney pleaded guilty to four charges related to hit-and-run, namely failing to give appropriate information to gardaí, failing to keep the vehicle at or near the occurrence, failing to report an occurrence and failing to stop his vehicle after an occurrence. Photo: Cork Courts Limited
Wed, 03 Feb, 2021 - 12:40
Liam Heylin
A 75-year-old taxi driver has been jailed for four years for failing to stop after a fatal collision that resulted in the death of consultant psychiatrist Dr Martin Lawlor in December 2018.
A retired taxi driver was jailed for four years for his callousness in driving away from the scene of an accident in which an eminent psychiatrist suffered fatal injuries.
Denis McSweeney (75) of Pouladuff Road in Cork was jailed as a judge was told he had panicked and left the scene at the Airport Road after Dr Martin Lawlor (49) had been struck by his taxi while walking back to his hotel.
Judge Sean O Donnabháin rejected the explanation at Cork Circuit Criminal Court - and said leaving the scene of such an accident was tantamount to callousness .
The Lawlor family told the former taxi driver they would never forgive him for leaving the doctor dying on the roadside.