Criminal who stole car with special needs teen inside was out on BAIL for motor theft

The Sunday World can reveal that the 38-year-old was due before the courts on two counts of drink driving, one count of the unauthorised taking of a vehicle and a further count of possession of an implement with the intention of committing an offence.

Fogarty died last week just hours after crashing a stolen Kia Sportage head-on into an oncoming vehicle after he crossed onto the wrong side of the road on a bad bend between Hennebry’s Cross and Dinan Bridge in Kilkenny.

The 16-year-old girl, who was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle waiting for her dad to return when it was stolen, has undergone a number of surgeries since the crash but has been left with life-changing injuries.

Fogarty was buried at a ceremony in his native Castlecomer earlier this week. He was well-known to Gardaí for involvement in criminality associated with drink and substance misuse.

He survived a stabbing in 2012 in which another man lost his life.

Fogarty was due before Dún Laoghaire District Count on March 29 in connection with three offences dating back to August of this year.

On August 26, he was accused of the unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle at Maryville, Castlecomer.

On August 27, he was arrested in the Kingston estate in Ballinteer, Dublin and charged with driving under the influence.

And, arising from the same incident, he was charged with possession of a screwdriver – which sources said may have been used in stealing the vehicle.

Separately, Fogarty was duebefore Kilkenny District Court on December 19 charged with driving while under the influence at Drimnagh, Laois on September 16 of this year.

In the wake of Fogarty’s death last week, toxicology tests were carried out during a post-mortem examination to determine if he was again under the influence when he stole the car in which the teenager was sitting.

alerted

CCTV, obtained by this newspaper in the wake of the crash, showed how at 3.33pm on the Friday of last week – moments after the 16-year-old’s father popped into an office in Kilkenny – Fogarty stole the family’s Kia Sportage with the autistic teenager inside.

When the teen’s father emerged from the office a short time later, he realised the car has been taken andalerted Gardaí, Fogarty was driving the vehicle with the teenager still inside at speed along the N77 to Ballyragget.

Having travelled less than 7km, Fogarty crossed onto the wrong side of the road on a bad bend between Hennebry’s Cross and Dinan Bridge.

It was during this illegal manoeuvre that he crashed head-on into a vehicle in which a man was driving a couple to a wedding celebration in Kilkenny.

The girl who was seriously injured in the crash will require further surgery, a family member said earlier this week

There were three adults in the other vehicle – a couple in their 40s and a man in his 60s, who has since been released from hospital.