A man has appeared in court charged with multiple counts of dangerous driving, including a charge in connection to an incident that claimed the lives of two teenagers in county Monaghan.
Kiea McCann (17) and Dlava Mohamed (16) died when the car they were travelling in left the road and crashed into a tree just outside Clones, Co Monaghan on July 31, 2023.
Forty-six-year-old Alin Sorin Gatea, with an address at Carn Heights, Clones, Monaghan, appeared at a sitting of Monaghan District Court to face five counts of dangerous driving on the same date, one of which related to a charge at Legnakelly, Clones, where the crash took place.
The other four charges related to alleged incidents at Clonkirk, Altertate Glebe, Clonkeen and Largy in Clones
Gatea’s solicitor Catherine Taaffe applied to have the case adjourned on foot of “various disclosure issues” which had emerged arising out of the State’s evidence.
She said part of that application rested on the fact a large volume of documentation still had to be translated and dash-cam footage which carried “very strong” prejudicial implications for her client in its current format.
“They (charges) are dangerous driving simpliciter and I should stress that and when one looks at the footage, your eyes are constantly fixed on the car in front which is not relevant to my client’s standard of driving,” she said.
Ms Taaffe added a further point which needed to be ironed out was exacting how the State had determined the speed of her client’s driving on the date in question.
“There are several methods that can be used to calculate the average speed a vehicle travels and different formulas are used can come up with different speed averages and that’s the point,” she said.
Alin Sorin Gatea outside Monaghan Courthouse.
Sgt Lisa McEntee countered by saying the prosecution’s case rested largely on the visual footage which was linked to the incident.
“The dash cam is there in real time, there is no better evidence,” she said.
Ms Taaffe replied, however by saying garda evidence which suggested Gatea had been speeding was not in keeping with certain eye witness accounts.
She appealed to Judge Raymond Finnegan to allow the defence further time by arguing five weeks was all which had been afforded to her client.
“We haven’t sat on our hands, five weeks is all I have had,” she said. “The State have had much longer to put together their case.”
Judge Finnegan consented to that request and remanded Gatea on bail to a sitting of Monaghan District Court on March 10.
Another man, Anthony McGinn, of Drumloo, Newbliss, Co Monaghan, is due to reappear at a sitting of Monaghan Circuit Criminal Court today charged with dangerous driving causing the deaths of the two Largy College students.
McGinn also faces another charge of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to Dlava’s sister Avin Mohammad who was injured in the crash.
The two teenagers, who had been best friends for years, were on their way to their Debs ball in the Westenra Arms Hotel in Monaghan when the tragic events of July 31, 2023 unfolded.