Group demands tougher sentences for ‘killer drivers’

BEREAVED local families are planning to hold a protest in the near future as part for their campaign to get tougher jail terms for killer drivers.

Life After – a self-support group which helps victims’ families in Tyrone and across the North – are organising demonstrations calling for stricter sentences and a reform of the court process relating to road fatalities.

A protest was held in Derry last week and another is planned for Omagh Courthouse soon.

One of Life After’s members is Marie O’Brien, from Douglas Bridge, who lost her 23-year-old daughter Caoimhe O’Brien in a single vehicle crash outside Strabane in 2016.

A week later, Marie’s brother-in-law, Eugene O’Brien was struck by a car in Newtownstewart. His life support machine was turned off on November 7, 2016.

Marie says the court process which followed Eugene’s death only served to ‘re-traumatise’ the family and failed to deliver justice.

“I waited two longs years believing that, when the person who killed Eugene went before the jury, there would be justice,” she said.

But Marie said what she experienced in the courtroom was a “total farce.”

She described the court process as a ‘re-traumatising’ event, forcing loved ones to relive the most painful event of their life.

Marie stated, “You might have to sit beside the family of the person who killed your loved one, and listen to their friends and family tell the jury from the stand about the defendant’s deep remorse and their commitment to their children, but the victim’s family don’t get the chance to tell the jury about the person they’ve lost in case it ‘prejudices the jury’.

“Surely allowing character statements to be read in favour of the defendant, but demanding silence on the part of the victim is prejudicial?”

Custodial sentences for dangerous driving are often reduced based on guilty pleas, probation reports which lay out the defendant’s background and the likelihood of reoffending and other mitigating factors.

Many Life After members feel that sentences for death drivers are too lenient.

The group is campaigning for significant reforms, including heavier sentencing, and also post-trial support for the victim’s family.

The Ulster Herald is awaiting a response from the Department of Justice regarding the proposed reforms but so far has received no comment.

To see Life After’s full list of reforms, to contact them, or join the group, visit their Facebook page; Life After.