By PATSY McARDLE
AN appeal against the leniency of a sentence on a South Monaghan driver who was involved in a fatal crash which claimed the lives of three people and an unborn child on December 27th 2010 was upheld in the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin on Monday last.
The Director of Public Prosecutions had appealed against the leniency of a three-year jail term imposed in the Circuit Criminal Court on publican Kevin McArdle, 30, of Longfield, Carrickmacross, who was sentenced to four years imprisonment by Judge John D. O’Hagan at the Circuit Criminal Court in Monaghan in 2011.
McArdle had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, causing the deaths of two men and a pregnant mum, as well as her unborn child, in the head-on road crash .
One year of the sentence was suspended and McArdle was also banned from driving for twelve years. He had already served three years.
The Court of Criminal Appeal held with the Director of Public Prosecutions that the sentence imposed on McArdle was “unduly lenient” and Mr. Justice Donal O’Donnell adjourned the case for two months to further consider the matter.
The court heard McArdle was released from prison on August 29th and the judge said he …