A 31-year-old man has been sentenced to six months in prison for careless driving that resulted in a Co Wexford woman losing her unborn son.
Yurii Dudek, with an address listed in Ukraine, was sentenced for careless driving causing serious bodily harm.
33-year-old Saoirse Aylward made an urgent call for legislative reform at the sentencing hearing of Dudek.
After the sentence was handed down today, Ms Aylward approached Dudek and said that she forgave him.
Dudek held her hand and apologised, and Ms Aylward asked him to remember her son, Jax.
Ms Aylward earlier told Wexford Circuit Court about her frustration and deep sorrow that her unborn son could not be recognised as a separate victim in the road traffic collision under Irish law.
The incident occurred on the main Rosslare to Wexford Road in the townland of Drinagh on 27 January 2024.
The court heard that the accused was in Ireland at the time collecting medical supplies and humanitarian aid for the Ukrainian army and people impacted by the war in his home country.
Watch: Woman calls for law change after unborn son died following crash
Garda John O'Flynn of Glynn Garda Station previously gave evidence that the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van that was being driven by Dudek at the time had rear-ended another vehicle that had stopped to make a right turn into the driveway of a house directly off the N25.
The vehicle that was rear-ended was then pushed into oncoming traffic, hitting the car in which Ms Aylward and her partner Nathan Fergeson Murphy were travelling.
The court heard that Ms Aylward, who was 31 weeks pregnant at the time, had to have an emergency C-section after being brought by ambulance to Wexford General Hospital.
When she woke up, she was told that her son Jax was stillborn.
Today, Judge Cormac Quinn said the victim impact statements delivered by Ms Aylward and Mr Fergeson Murphy yesterday were the most "compelling, distressing and moving statements that one could hear".
The judge said there were several mitigating factors in this case, including that the accused's age, his "valuable" plea of guilt which saved the case having to go to trial, and the fact that Dudek had no previous convictions in Ireland or Ukraine.
Judge Quinn also said that Dudek was distraught following the incident and was genuinely remorseful for what had happened.
However, the judge said a custodial sentence in this case was "inevitable and appropriate".
The judge said a maximum sentence in a case of careless driving was one of two years.
He set a headline sentence of nine months and sentenced Dudek to six months in prison after taking the mitigating factors into account.
Judge Quinn also said he would credit Dudek for any time already spent in custody, and he would not be suspending his driver's licence as he used this for his volunteering work in aid of Ukraine.
Ms Aylward said legislative reform was needed to address what she described as a "gap" in the law.
In a statement, Ms Aylward said: "'Jax's Law' proposes that babies who die as a result of fatal road collisions during pregnancy are recognised in their own right within the justice system.
"This was not a single moment in my life. It has altered every part of my present and every part of my future. I have been given a life sentence and will live with the consequences of someone else’s actions that night for the rest of my life.
"My hope now is that some good can come from this, and that no other mother, no other grieving family, will experience the additional pain of discovering that their child’s life is not formally recognised within our justice system."
