Dreadful..

Just to explore a train of thought, hypothetically, would the driver in this instance have a better chance if she used the drunk driving angle as a defence against leaving the scene of an accident? Like, could she argue that she was so profoundly drunk that she didn't even realise she had struck the man, and therefore was not knowingly leaving the scene of an accident as she was unaware of it. It would have been only her husband that made her aware of the accident having seen the damaged car.

It may be too late for that now though if she has admitted to everything already.

Probably not but the reality of life is that in the overwhelming majority of family setups, the mother of the children is the primary carer and looks after the lions share of the caring and child rearing,, with the father taking a somewhat secondary but nonetheless important role. It is not always the case, but it would be true for the majority of everyday families. A lot of fathers are absent too. Single father families would be quite rare indeed, though they do exist of course.

So that leads to a situation where, on average, a mother being imprisoned will have a much greater negative impact on the children compared when a father is imprisoned.

Someone above suggested that she should have her children put into care as a result of this. What half baked drivel! The woman might have caused a bad accident and fled, but there is absolutely no evidence for her having mistreated or neglected her children. And I can tell you, the bar for having children taken away from a mother and into care is very, very high and is reserved only for the most extreme and irresolvable cases of abuse.

And would this desire taking them into care be for their own benefit (for abuse that there is no evidence ro suggestion of whatsoever), or as a means to punish the mother?

Well we have a Labour TD who believes women should never be jailed for crimes... Ivana [s]Batsh!te[\s] Bacik

No. I agree with you. What about one punch deaths? Most of the time the person gets up and walks away. The crime is the same so does the punishment depend on the outcome rather than the crime?

I'm not sure how to answer that one and it's slightly off topic so I won't continue but if we can't jail Mothers because their kids will be punished, what about if the victim dies leaving behind kids?

“Mother of young kids” is up there with “promising GAA player”. You can tag half of the population with these term but doesn’t mean they should get treated more leniently.

What speed was she driving at for this to happen?

No it isn't blind to gender, you are right. But in my opinion there is good reason for that. An awful lot of the males in prison are there because they are actually dangerous, voilent or predatory types. It is a public danger to have them out on the street. When women commit crimes, they tend to be either non-violent, or if violent it is not the type of opportunistic predatory violence where they are a danger to the wider public, moreso it is associated with fighting to do with substance abuse issues, or petty theft would be the most common crime. These are better dealt with through treatment and interventions of one form or other.

Justifiable imprisonment of women is generally reserved for the more extreme cases of intentional and very serious violence. An example of such would be the as the Mulhall Scissor Sisters. And even in that case, while what they did was wrong, one can at least understand the reasons for them doing it - they and their mother were subjected to months of bullying, voilence and sexual abuse by that man.

Some poeple have drawn notice to the fact she is a young mother. Another reason why courts do not imprison young mothers is because they may wish to continue with family and have another child. It would be seen as disproportionate to effectively punish the woman by potentially denying her the chance to have a child while imprisoned. It could run foul of the consitution because under that there is the right to found a family.

Sho3King incident. They should really make an example of her. Drink driving and reckless driving has the potential to change lives forever and its not taken half a seriously as it should be.

Sweet mother of F**k, the state of this thread!

The idiots on here claiming that it’s only an accident, it could happen anyone really need to f**k off back under a rock. The idiot drunk driver that caused a life changing injury to an innocent member of the public should face the full rigours of the law, regardless of sex, marital status, parenthood etc!

Not revoking their licence, not sending them to jail for grevious bodily harm is just wrong, and anyone excusing it is effectively condoning it.

Driving is a privilege, but it’s also being in control of a deadly weapon. If you cause damage, you should face the consequences. I don’t think I’ve ever dealt as angry about a thread in here in decades!

She may have intentionally made very bad decisions but mowing down a Garda was almost certainly not intentional. I swear to got some people cannot seem to see the wood from the trees here.

Intentionally drink driving does not equal to intentionally running over a person. It was an unfortunate and unintended consequence of the bad decision she made. It's not like she saw the man, pointed her car at him and accelerated towards him and shouted "take that" as he flew over the bonnet. Some of ye just cannot seem to make the distinction between premeditated intentional act and an unintended accident arising out of bad decisions and recklessness.

100% agree, can't believe some of the shite posted here.

That woman should NEVER be let drive again, the second a person fails an alcohol breath test their licence should be suspended right away until trial.

She drove drunk and maimed a person on a bike and left the scene, she left the guy for dead !!!

He's not just a "cyclist" he's a man with a family and their lives have been changed forever because this woman drove drunk, no excuses she must face prosecution.

Bollocks to anyone that thinks "parents" either male or female deserve Not to be jailed for crimes they commit because they have kids.

A deterrent and punishment. It's like everyone has one free pass to do something highly dangerous and life changing for someone.

How often in threads have we complained about people given a suspended sentence after hit and runs etc?