A MAN had his appeal against a three-month jail sentence for a hit-and-run, in which a teenage boy was seriously injured, adjourned for the court to receive a victim impact statement from the boy.
Paul Dady (40), Sixmilebridge, County Clare, was sentenced to three months in jail last December after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, hit-and-run, failing to remain at the scene of a collision, and failing to report a collision.
The collision occurred at Ardnacrusha, County Clare, on November 10, 2024.
Mr Dady’s barrister Joe McMahon, instructed by solicitor Sarah Ryan, told the appeal hearing held Limerick Circuit Criminal Court that Dady was appealing the sentence on grounds of “severity”.
Padraig Mawe, State Solicitor for Limerick City, told the court: “This is an allegation that the appellant knocked down a 16-year-old boy who suffered not insignificant injuries.”
Mr Mawe sought an adjournment to allow the court receive a victim impact statement.
Judge Colin Daly said the court should afford the victim, who is now 18, the opportunity to explain how the hit and run impacted his life. He adjourned the appeal hearing to a date in July.
On the day in question, Dady, a native of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK, drove a car onto a footpath, knocked the boy down, and left the scene, his sentencing heard in December 2025.
Sergeant Aisling O’Neill, Roxboro Road Garda Station, told the sentencing court that the victim and a younger brother of his had been walking on a footpath when a blue Nissan Tidda, registered to Mr Dady, “came around a bend and lost control on a soft verge”.
“The vehicle then crossed both carriageways and mounted a footpath on the opposite side of the road where the injured party and his brother were walking,” said Sergeant O’Neill.
“The injured party was struck by the vehicle causing him to fall to the ground and he sustained injuries to his right leg.
“The injured party and his brother said that the driver didn’t get out of his vehicle to speak to them. The driver was approached by the injured party’s brother and the driver then drove off without offering any assistance or his details.”
Sergeant O’Neill said the victim’s younger brother took a photograph of Mr Dady’s car as it left the scene, which was passed on to investigating Gardaí.
The victim was taken by ambulance from the scene to University Hospital Limerick. Sergeant O’Neill said he had to be readmitted to the hospital a few days later after the injury to his leg worsened and he had “no use of it from the knee down”.
At the time Dady was working as a maintenance man in County Clare and had no previous convictions.
Judge Harney said Dady “left a child lying on the ground and drove away”.
Dady’s solicitor, John Hebert, told the sentencing hearing that Dady instructed him that “he never realised that he hit (the victim), he heard a bang and he clipped the kerb and he just wasn’t aware there was another person.”
Judge Harney said Dady’s explanation that he was unaware he had struck the boy with his car “defies any kind of belief at all”.
Dady went to a Garda station by appointment three days after the hit-and-run, and while he was interviewed by Gardaí under caution he “accepted that he was responsible” for the victim’s injuries, Mr Herbert said.
Mr Herbert said Dady was extremely sorry for all of the distress caused to the victim and his family, and he accepted the boy was “put through a huge ordeal”.
Last December Judge Harney jailed Dady for three-months or failing to remain at the scene of the hit and run. She took into consideration Dady’s failure to stop and failure to report the collision.
Judge Harney also banned Dady from driving for two years and fined him €500 in respect of his dangerous driving conviction.
Dady is not allowed drive while he awaits the outcome of his appeal hearing.