Bipolar sufferer has joy-riding sentence suspended
A former Drogheda resident who crashed a stolen car while off his bipolar disorder medication has been given a two-year suspended sentence by Judge Tony Hunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Matthew King (aged 21), drove off in the car leaving the owner, Mr Eoin Devine, standing at the side of the road after he and another man offered to help him when he was having difficulties parking it in Blackrock.
He said later he had intended to drive the car as far as Drogheda where he lived until his mother died from cancer in 2001 but crashed into a taxi when he broke a red light at Dorset Street and abandoned it.
Detective Garda Tom Morley told prosecuting counsel, Ms Anne B Rowland BL, that the other man then took a taxi back to Blackrock and told Mr Devine his car had crashed.
King, who now lives in Newry, Co. Down pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and unlawful carriage in the BMW car on January 13, 2007.
Det. Gda Morley said that when King and the other man offered to help him park his car, Mr Devine thought they looked respectable and gave the car keys to King who drove the car toward Seapoint and did a u-turn.
However, King didn't park the car but instead drove in the direction of Dublin city centre with his friend in the passenger seat, leaving Mr Devine at the side of the road.
Det. Gda Morley said Mr Devine went into the flat held by King's friends, where he was offered beer and reassured by them that he would get his car back soon.
King, who was off his medication at the time, and his passenger left the car after crashing it and mingled into the crowd once they saw that the taxi occupants weren't injured.
Det. Gda Morley said that although the taxi occupants weren't injured, the emergency services had to cut the driver out of the vehicle and both cars were write-offs.
Det. Gda Morley said King met with him after contact was made with the help of the other man and admitted he took the car without permission and that he wasn't used to driving on Irish roads.
Det. Gda Morley agreed with defence counsel, Ms Cathleen Noctor BL, that King was reared by his mother in Drogheda until her death.
He agreed also that King spent time living with different relatives in Ireland and America but had a psychotic episode in Los Angeles in 2005 and was placed in St John of God Hospital in Dublin.
He had stopped taking his medication around the time of the offence because he said it made him "unwell, sleepy and not himself." Det. Gda Morley agreed that King was now taking his medication.
Judge Tony Hunt told King he was lucky no-one was injured in this "bizarre escapade" but that other motorists in the country would have to bear a portion of the damage caused.
He accepted that "criminal enterprises are somewhat out-of-character" for King and disqualified him from driving for three years.
