A drunk driver who killed a four-year-old boy in a car crash in Co. Laois last year is due to be sentenced today.
Finbarr OÂ’Rourke of Laurel Drive in Portlaoise drank up to ten pints of cider before getting behind the wheel in April 2014.
On April 17th last year, Gillian Treacy was driving her two boys home to Portarlington after spending a day with their grandparents in Stradbally, Co. Laois when Finbarr OÂ’Rourke smashed head on into their car at Ballymorris.
In a powerful Victim Impact Statement read out in court last week, she described in vivid detail the pain she felt after the crash and the cries and screams of her sons in the back.
Then “all of a sudden Ciaran became silent,” she said. It was a silence I had never experienced before and as a mother I knew wasn’t right.
Her worst fears were realised the following day when her husband told her that 4-year-old Ciaran had died.
The court heard Mr. OÂ’Rourke drank between 8 and 10 pints on the day of the crash and got into his car after a disagreement with his friend. The 40-year-old is due to be sentenced today.
