THE PARENTS OF Kiea McCann have urged the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal a sentence handed down last month to Anthony McGinn.

McGinn, 61, was jailed last month for seven years after he admitted to dangerous driving, causing the deaths of best friends Kiea, 17, and Dlava Mohammed, 16, in July 2023. The girls were travelling to their debs at the time of the crash.

Northern South radio station reported that Kiea’s parents are requesting that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) review the case. Speaking to the station today, Frankie and Teresa McCann called for tougher sentences for offenders like McGinn.

The sentencing hearing of McGinn heard he was travelling at an average speed of 139km/h and that the occupants of the car had pleaded with him to slow down before the car lost control and crashed into a tree near Legnakelly, Clones, Co Monaghan.

Teresa told the radio station: “These children begged for their lives, asking him to slow down [...] Obviously the fear of god was in them.”

Kiea’s parents have previously expressed dissatisfaction with the sentence handed down to McGinn. 

Frankie said: “It’s not a sentence of seven years, it’s an insult to our family. It’s an insult to the Mohammed family. [The DPP] don’t live in our house. They don’t see the carnage afterwards.”

A spokesperson for the DPP has been contacted for comment.