Republican News · Thursday 10 April 2003

Death Drivers claim three more victims

BY AINE Ní BHRIAN

The scourge of car crime continues to rip families and communities apart.

This past Friday, the youth responsible for the brutal hit and run killing of 15-year-old Debbie McComb sat smirking at her grieving family as a Crown court judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison for causing her death.

Twenty-year-old Harry Marley had 58 previous convictions for car crime before he struck and killed Debbie on the Whiterock Road in March of last year. Although he admitted stealing the Vauxhall Corsa, Marley denied he was driving the vehicle when Debbie was struck. However, witnesses placed him behind the wheel. His refusal to accept responsibility for his actions caused even more suffering for the McComb family.

On Friday 4 April, Marley was handed down nine years for causing death by dangerous driving, another three for theft and a lifetime ban on driving. The sentences are to be served consecutively.

Spectators in the courtroom, which included members of Debbie's family, friends, and supporters of the McComb family, cheered in celebration when the court announced its decision, but Marley simply grinned at the public gallery, infuriating the assembled crowd.

Marley's accomplice, 21-year-old Neil Blaney, another death driver with a lengthy record of car crime offences, had a previous conviction in the hit and run of father of three John McDonald in April 2000. He had served only six months of an 18-month sentence.

This past Friday, he was sentenced alongside Marley to two years and three months for his part in Debbie's killing and the crime spree which had preceeded it, on the condition that he serve 18 months probation on his release from jail.

Outside the courtroom, Debbie's family and members of the group Families Bereaved Through Car Crime - which was formed in the aftermath of the young girl's killing - spoke about their agonising wait for justice.

"Marley laughed at our family," said Debbie's heartbroken father, Jim McComb. "He thinks it's funny and he thinks it is a bloodsport. He deserves to serve every bit of that sentence.

"As Families Bereaved Through Car Crime get stronger and stronger, we will end up putting death drivers off our streets."

But only hours after the court case ended, death drivers mowed down 25-year-old Rossa Quigley in North Belfast.

Rossa had been out celebrating his mother's birthday on the Whiterock Road in the west of the city. Ironically, the Quigley family home is just yards from the spot where Debbie McComb died.

As he made his way to his own home around 10pm that evening, Rossa was crossing the Cliftonville Road when a blue Vauxhall Cavalier struck him at high speed and raced off without stopping. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The vehicle had been stolen from the Short Strand area and was later found abandoned near the City Cemetery in west Belfast. In another sad twist of fate, the spot where Rossa was killed is only yards from where Dana Fitzpatrick and her child Kevin died when they were struck by death drivers two years ago.

Over the weekend, the carnage continued.

Only two days after Rossa's killing, the lives of two more people were claimed - one of them a Catholic priest, the other the death driver himself.

Father Sean McCartan died in a head-on collision with a stolen red Vauxhall Cavalier as he headed home from celebrating Mass at his Newry church on the morning of Sunday, 6 April. Last June, Father McCartan marked 40 years in the priesthood.

The driver of the car, which had been stolen from Dundalk early that day, also died at the scene. He was named as 20-year-old Martin James Kelly.

That Sunday afternoon, 6 April, as news of two more deaths was being broadcast to a horrified public, almost 1,000 people attended a vigil on the Cliftonville Road in memory of Rossa Quigley and the many other victims of car crime.

Speakers included Belfast Mayor Alex Maskey, Margaret Muir from Families Bereaved Through Car Crime, and Rossa's brother, Cormac, who had come home from America to bury his younger brother. He was clearly still in shock and his shattered parents stood nearby choking back tears.

"My soul is empty," Cormac Quigley told the crowd sadly. "I can't even believe this is happening. And I would just like to say, think about that before you steal a car. It is not a joyride. It is not funny. It is not a bit of a laugh. My brother is dead and he will never come back."

Margaret Muir said that she and others in the group knew only too well the grief of the Quigley family. "We have walked in your shoes and our hearts are breaking for you," said a clearly emotional Muir. "As I look around me today the fear that grips me is that we could be doing this again for somebody who's standing here. This has got to stop."

Fr Gary Donegan, from Holy Cross church, also addressed the crowd. He had been on the scene of Rossa's death on Friday night and administered the Last Rites. He had stayed by Rossa's side until the young man was gone, offering prayer and comfort as best he could.

On Monday 7 April, five West Belfast men appeared in court in connection with Rossa's death.

Malachy Delaney, aged 19, was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and faced an additional six charges relating to refusing to stop and leaving the scene of an "accident."

Delaney was also further charged with dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, driving without insurance and taking a car without the owner's consent.

A PSNI officer told the court that the stolen vehicle that killed Rossa had hit a PSNI Land Rover off the Cavehill Road about an hour before it struck the young man.

The four remaining men in the car were charged with being in the vehicle and driving without insurance. They include 28-year-old Sean Mulligan, Paul Mulligan, 17, John Moran, 25, and Malachy Goodman, 19.

All five were remanded in custody to appear before the court by video link on 14 April.