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LAST UPDATE | 14 May
A MONAGHAN MAN who admitted to dangerous driving causing the deaths of two teenagers making their way to a debs ball has been sentenced to seven years in jail.
Sixty-one-year old Anthony McGinn of Drumloo, Newbliss had last week pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of 17-year-old Kiea McCann and 16-year-old Dlava Mohammed.
On 31 July 2023, best friends Kiea and Dlava were making their way to the debs ball in the Western Arms Hotel, along with Dlava’s sister Avin and another passenger, Oisin Clerkin.
The car they were travelling in, driven by McGinn, struck a tree at Legnakelly, Clones, killing Kiea, Dlava, and seriously injuring Avin.
Oisin sustained less serious injuries in the collision.
At a hearing last week at Monaghan Circuit Criminal Court, Senior Investigating Officer Ann-Marie Lardner told the court the primary cause of the accident was speed.
According to an extensive forensic report, McGinn’s average speed between Clones and the scene of the collision near the New Line junction was calculated to 138.85 km/h.
The speed limit on that road is 80 km/h.
In Garda interviews, the court heard that McGinn said he couldn’t remember anything that happened, he only remembered getting into the car in Clones.
Defence solicitors had appealed to the court to consider Anthony McGinn’s lack of previous convictions, his low risk of reoffending, and his expression of remorse to the families when passing sentence.
Judge John Aylmer set a headline sentence of nine years and reduced that to seven years on mitigation. McGinn was also disqualified from driving for 15 years.
Victims
Victim impact statements were read in court last week. Mohammed Mohammed, Dlava’s father said how the light from his wife’s eyes is now gone, and he wakes up with a broken heart every day.
He described how his family left Syria in 2017 to chase their dreams, but now Dlava will never get the chance.
Avin, who suffered serious injuries in the incident, said the crash changed her life forever, that it was supposed to be a happy night getting ready with her sister and her best friend for the debs.
She said she told McGinn to slow down multiple times, and then everything went black.
She suffered five broken bones in her legs along with numerous other injuries such as fractured ribs, a punctured lung, and required multiple surgeries.
The incident left her with life-changing injuries and she described how she can no longer draw, and had to attend speech and language therapy.
Kiea’s father, Frankie McCann also read a statement to the court last week.
He said Kiea was a vibrant young girl with so much drive, who had aspirations to be a carer or social worker and who, despite her dyslexia, achieved merits and distinctions in her Leaving Cert.
He said that performing CPR on her and her best friend in vain will stay with him forever.
A statement read by Frankie on behalf of Teresa, Kiea’s mother, described how her daughter’s life has been robbed and that she received a headstone as her 18th birthday present.
Kiea’s sisters also read statements on how much they missed her, and how McGinn had destroyed their families’ lives.
Judge
During sentencing, Judge John Aylmer said that aggravating circumstances included that McGinn was travelling at almost twice the speed limit in an 80 km/h zone.
He also raised evidence that McGinn had “ignored the somewhat angry pleas to desist from two of the frightened young passengers.”
The judge said that he had been entrusted to drive the teenagers to their debs and that he was guilty of an “extraordinary breach of that trust” by “driving in the manner in which you did”.
The Judge also noted that wet road conditions, “making it even more dangerous”, and remarked that “the devastating impact of your actions add to the aggravation in this case”.
“The intention was a very determined one to drive at a grossly excessive speed and thereby having a reckless disregard for the obvious potential for death and serious injury to result,” the judge said, adding that this places the offending at the upper scale.
“I have been asked to consider the fact that you too suffered very serious injuries in mitigation, but that provides little mitigation for you insofar as they were self-imposed.
“I note that you have since lost your marriage and your relationship with your children I’m told has become distant,” the judge said.
“I have regard to your deep sense of remorse. I heard from the families of the deceased that as far as they were concerned you did not show remorse.
“That is not the case but it is the case that you did not convey this to them, but there were reasons for this, such as the criminal case pending.”
The judge said that McGinn has “significant injuries arising from the collision” that would make prison more difficult.
He said he would therefore reduce the headline sentence of nine years to one of seven-years in prison on each count, and those are to run concurrently to each other.
Garda Ann-Marie Larnder, of the Cavan-Monaghan Roads Policing Unit, said gardaí “stands united in grief” with the families of Kiea and Dlava.
Ann-Marie Lardner of the Cavan-Monaghan Roads policing unit reacting to the seven-year sentence imposed on 61-year-old Anthony McGinn, who last week pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of 17-year-old Kiea McCann and 16-year-old Dlava Mohammed. @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/aoMJe93UXt
— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) May 14, 2025
She appealed for drivers to slow down and said that “as a society, Ireland needs to reset our collective attitude towards road safety and needs to slow down”.
“The only people who can drive slower are drivers, but everyone can influence a driver.”
- With reporting by Jack Cunnane
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