Date set for appeal in Laois student's death

AN appeal against the sentence imposed on a driver who killed Laois student Joe Drennan is set to be heard in November.

A hearing date of 6 November was set in the Court of Appeal today, where the case of DPP v Kieran Fogarty was listed for mention.

There was a local and national outcry last January, when the killer received concurrent sentences for unrelated offences, meaning that he would effectively serve no jail time for Joe’s horrific death.

The 21-year-old’s heartbroken family from Knocknagad, Camross, Mountrath described the concurrent sentence as an ‘insult’ and immediately called on the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to appeal.

As a ‘Justice for Joe’ campaign gathered huge support, it was confirmed in February that the DPP would appeal the sentence imposed on driver Kieran Fogarty at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court the previous month.

The upcoming appeal was sought by Joe’s parents Tim and Margeurite, who were utterly devastated by the concurrent sentence given to Fogarty for the University of Limerick student’s death. His grieving dad said that Fogarty had left Joe to die “like a dog on the street”.

After the sentencing hearing, the family said they were ‘disgusted’ by the concurrent jail term, which ‘completely destroyed our lives for a second time in 15 months’.

In a handwritten statement after the hearing, Tim wrote: ‘Joe was pinned under the car, while Fogarty sat on top of him wiping his DNA from the vehicle. He offered no assistance and just ran away, leaving him to die under the car.

‘All we ask is that Joe has his own sentence - the maximum under law - because of the way he was left to die. My world and that of my family was destroyed that day.’ 

The family’s ‘Justice for Joe’ campaign saw massive support for public protests in Laois, with marches in Camross and Mountrath, as well as solidarity events at the University of Limerick and outside the Dail, an online petition and a visit to the DPP’s office in Dublin by Drennan family members.

Fogarty was speeding, texting and filming on a mobile phone before he lost control of a car that struck Joe near the university gates in Castletroy, while the award-winning journalism student was waiting at a bus stop on Friday 13 October, 2023. Fogarty offered no assistance to Joe but instead fled the scene, after trying to wipe his DNA from the vehicle.

The 21-year-old from Hyde Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick, was given a six-and-half-year sentence for dangerous driving causing death, together with an eight-year term for discharging a firearm as part of a gangland feud.

Judge Colin Daly initially indicated that the eight-year term would run consecutively, resulting in a prison sentence of 14-and-a-half-years. However, after a prosecuting barrister sought clarification, the judge ruled that the sentences would be concurrent.

An online petition calling for reform of consecutive sentencing laws, set up by the family last February, was signed by nearly 15,000 people. Speaking at the Mountrath march that month, Joe’s sister Sarah said: “While we can’t bring him back, we can honour him by making sure that no other family suffers the same injustice.”