A Tipperary driver who uploaded his dangerous driving antics onto YouTube, has been sentenced to four months in jail.
Aaron Stanley from Nenagh in Tipperary clocked up more than 26,000 views on the Internet after posting reckless footage of him and his friends joy-riding around east Clare in his Toyota car.
The joyriding was filmed on July 14, 2010 and after it was posted online, one viewer brought it to the attention of local police. Just two days before, a serious two-car collision had resulted in the deaths of eight young men in Donegal.
All of the occupants of the car are identifiable and the registration plates of two of the three cars involved were visible also. However, Stanley is the only person to appear in court over the matter.
Attorney for the defense, Tony O’Malley, said that due to the publicity of the incident, the 22-year-old had received death threats and went into hiding for a period of time as a result.
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Some of the irresponsible footage shows the three cars approaching a school crossing. Viewers can see Stanley and the front-seat passenger sticking their feet out of the front window while oncoming traffic approaches them.
O’Malley said that his client had a fixation with cars and that he was playing up for the camera but recognized his actions were dangerous and reckless.
The defendant had an extensive rap sheet and last month he received a three-month sentence for stealing a car.
Judge Aeneas McCarthy sentenced him to four months in prison and disqualified him for driving for the next decade.
6 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.cindyohcindy | Nov 05, 2011, 06:21 PM EDT
You say what do I think, well I will tell you what I think.. 30 years to the date Nov. 4th..when my brother James was killed on the Nenagh road while trying to cross on a very very straight strech of road as he was knocked down by a car and the blood shot out his ears, and on his arrived..DOD identified by a neighbour who worked at the hospital...my other brother died June third from the sock which was 7th months later and my mom Oct. 20th so three family members were killed you might say, while other loved ones were left with a broken hear..I still bear the pain in silence to this day.. My family are from Ennis, Co. Clare... is this earie or ??? RIP Can the offender read this while in Jail???
merefalow | Nov 05, 2011, 01:05 PM EDT
i think we lose far to many youngsters on our roads,kids and reckless speed go hand in hand,you can pass your test without ever driving at night or on a motorway,they are not taught how a car can go off the road if it goes into a bend to fast,not taught how dangerous it is to drive to fast to close,a whole bunch of things they realy need to know,they are let down before they ever start,the driving test should be only part of how to realy drive a car,it breaks my heart when i read of another teenage road death and for the people left behind,i have had fast cars all my life and i love them but i realy feel that we could do so much more for our youngsters and save so many if we taught them a lot more than we do, before we let them loose to kill themselves and others..the statistics of teenage road death is bloody discracefull..
timbobdennehy | Nov 05, 2011, 09:54 AM EDT
with that broken windscreen he would be pulled anyway.
Conchubar | Nov 05, 2011, 08:32 AM EDT
The moron couldn't even spell "Their" correctly in the opening storyline. At least the gene pool is safe for the next four months.
hybernia | Nov 04, 2011, 02:47 PM EDT
As dumb as a stump.
gobdawpaddy | Nov 04, 2011, 08:28 AM EDT
Too dumb to be on the planet.