Convicted garda killer jailed for endangering officer at Covid checkpoint
Martin McDermott sentenced to almost five years in prison for driving at garda
A man convicted of killing a garda in 2009 has been sentenced to almost five years in prison for endangering a garda at a Covid-19 checkpoint in 2020.
Martin McDermott, 36, was jailed for four years and nine months after he had pleaded guilty to endangering the life of Garda Martin Kilcoyne at Raymoghey, Manorcunningham, on April 14, 2020.
Garda Kilcoyne told Donegal Circuit Court he had to jump out of the way of McDermott’s speeding car after a motorist he was speaking to warned him in time. The accused also pleaded guilty to assaulting Garda Kilcyone before he was apprehended, driving without a licence and drink driving on the same date.
A previous court heard Garda Kilcoyne was operating a Covid-19 checkpoint at 10.20pm. He was speaking to a female driver when another car approached. He had indicated to the other car to slow down when the driver he was speaking to shouted a warning.
The car approached at speed and swerved around the stationary car and Garda Kilcoyne was forced to jump out of the way.
He said the car had ample opportunity to stop but it had accelerated towards him. He said he was fearful he could have been seriously injured.
If it was not for the warning from the other driver, he wouldn't have been able to jump out of the way of the car, he said.
Gardaí followed the car which swerved across the road and went around a bend on the wrong side of the road.
The car lost control and attempted to drive on the wrong side of dual carriageway against an oncoming car.
The car came to a stop and the driver fled and hid in undergrowth. When the driver, McDermott, was found by gardaí, he kicked Garda Kilcoyne in the chest and knocked him to the ground. He was abusive to gardaí and had to be restrained as he was taken to Letterkenny garda station. At the station, he was breathalysed and found to be positive for alcohol.
McDermott, who has 98 previous convictions, has served a sentence for the manslaughter of Garda Gary McLoughlin.
He was driving a car which struck Garda McLoughlin who was manning a checkpoint at Burt on December 13, 2009.
McDermott had been trying to evade gardaí during a high-speed pursuit that lasted 30km and reached speeds of up to 150km/h.
Sentencing McDermott, of Abbey Park, Manorcunningham, Judge John Aylmer said the offence merited a sentence of six and half years in prison. Aggravating circumstances included the extent of his previous convictions, which included the conviction for the manslaughter of Garda McLoughlin.
Further aggravating factors included the fact that he was driving while disqualified.
Judge Aylmer said it was very difficult to accept the proposition of McDermott’s defence counsel that the endangerment was more reckless than intentional as he had driven at Garda Kilcoyne, forcing him to jump out of the way to save his life.
Mitigating circumstances included that he entered an early plea of guilty, and he showed in a letter he read to court that he was genuinely remorseful and that he had developed some insight into the seriousness of his offending.
The judge noted a medical report that he had significant trauma from being kidnapped when he was younger and that all his difficulties arise from abuse of drugs and alcohol.
Judge Aylmer reduced the sentence to five and a half years with concurrent sentences of five months for assault causing harm and drink driving. He also disqualified McDermott from driving for 15 years.
Taking into account McDermott’s desire for rehabilitation, he suspended the last nine months of the prison sentence for two years upon his release on the condition he abstain from alcohol and non-prescribed drugs and undergo the supervision of the probation service. The sentence was backdated to February 8 when he was taken into custody.