A part-time firefighter has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for dangerous driving causing the death of a 27-year-old man in north Dublin.
Derek Keane from The Cottage, Loughshinny, Skerries, Co Dublin, had pleaded guilty to the charge at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The 40-year-old father-of-three had also pleaded guilty to failing to offer assistance to the victim.
The incident happened at Loughshinny, on the R128 between Rush and Skerries, in the early hours of 27 December 2016.
Callum Grimes was found on the roadside with serious injuries and unconscious a number of hours later by a bread van driver, who was making deliveries.
He had been walking home after a night out with friends in Skerries.
The 27-year-old died in Beaumont Hospital in July 2017, seven months after the collision.
The court heard Derek Keane, an electrician by trade, had drank up to 15 pints and had a gin and tonic before the incident.
He told gardaí he did not remember leaving the bar he was in, driving home or being in a collision.
He made contact with gardaí after he woke up in the morning, noticed damage to his vehicle and after hearing about the collision.
In a statement, the Grimes family solicitor Dermot McNamara said "the parents of Callum Grimes believe their son would be alive and with their family today, if he had received urgent medical attention."
He said: "They struggle to understand why a firefighter and trained paramedic would decide to leave the scene of an accident, knowing the person they struck needed urgent assistance."
In handing down sentence today, Judge Martin Nolan described it as "lamentable and tragic case."
He said Callum Grimes' family had to observe him essentially dying and then to make a deacon to turn off his life support machine.
Judge Nolan said Derek Keane drank to such an extent, it rendered him incapable of driving his vehicle or remembering what happened on the night.
In an emotional victim statement read out in court, Mark Grimes described his son Callum as "a shy boy who loved life."
He said Callum's family, former girlfriend and wide range of loyal friends have "endured the loss of a genuinely beautiful person."
Mr Grimes read out extracts from a diary the family had compiled while Callum was being treated in hospital, which they hoped to give to him when he woke up, outlining his treatment and his condition between 27 December 2016 and 13 July 2017, when his life support machine was switched off.
Mark Grimes also told the court that Callum's mother Catherine was too ill to be in attendance for today’s sentencing.
He said she began treatment for cancer four days after her son was buried in 2017.
Mr Grimes said she was in remission until March of this year, but has been diagnosed with stage four cancer and is now terminally ill.
Addressing Derek Keane, Mark Grimes said "we struggle in the name of all that is decent Mr Keane, to understand how you killed our son, and left him on the side of the road."
"As a nurse I believe that these hours could’ve been crucial, and wonder if you had done the decent thing and got help immediately, would Colm be still here with us," he added.
Mr Grimes also said: "I would like some day to find the grace to forgive, but this day is not it."
Counsel for Derek Keane, Dominic McGinn SC, told the court his client had written a letter of apology to the Grimes’ family.
He said Derek Keane deeply regrets his actions and he said he "will live with the shame for the rest of his life."
Judge Martin Nolan described the offence as being at the highest level on the scale of dangerous driving causing death, which required a "severe sentence."
And he said he thought the "type of behaviour was a thing of the past."
