Lecturer Banned And Fined Following West Clare Chase

A physics whizz and respected academic got his sums all wrong when he evaded capture from a Garda in a high speed chase lasting more than 20 miles across Clare last year.

In the ‘bizarre’ case before Ennis District Court, Judge Patrick Durcan banned Dr Patrick McCarthy from driving for one year and fined him €1,250 after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and a hit and run arising from his crash and subsequent chase in July last year.

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The senior lecturer at UCC’s Dept of Physics is the author of papers on mind bending topics such as magnetic confinement fusion, but the 60 year badly erred when he believed that he was being chased by a road rage aggressor rather than an off duty female garda in her own car.

Father of four, Dr McCarthy of Clanlughlin, Lee Rd, Cork ‘clipped’ the car owned by off-duty Garda, Amanda Twomey on July 9th last at Miltown Malbay during the Willie Clancy festival and took off.

Judge Durcan said: “An intelligent man should have realised after a small impact, someone was likely to give chase.”

Insp Tom Kennedy said that as a result of the ‘clipping’, Garda Twomey was jolted forward, enough to shake her in the car.

Garda Twomey continued in hot pursuit flashing her lights at Dr McCarthy who had not realised that he collided with her car.

Insp Kennedy said that Dr McCarthy drove aggressively trying to overtake cars as he sped away from Garda Twomey’s 02 black Mercedes.

Insp Kennedy described the case as ‘bizarre’ with Dr McCarthy’s solicitor, Daragh Hassett commenting ‘you couldn’t make it up’, describing the circumstances around the chase as “bizarre and unprecedented”.

Mr Hassett said that Dr McCarthy made a judgement call there and then stating that he was the victim of a ‘road rage’ incident in Cork city last year and this informed his thinking on the evening.

Describing it as a rash decision, Mr Hassett said that Dr McCarthy “saw a car coming after him, he didn’t know who it was and he thought “I better get out of here”."

Mr Hassett said: “Dr McCarthy had no idea who this person was pursuing him. If it wasn’t a garda involved, the person may well have wanted to take his head off. That’s the country we live in.”

He said: “If he hadn’t had the previous road rage incident in Cork, he may well have stopped.”

Garda Twomey had radioed to Garda stations in the area and when Dr McCarthy was finally stopped by a Garda patrol car outside Ennis, Mr Hassett said that the first thing that Dr McCarthy said to the Gardai: “Am I relieved to see you” in the belief that he was at risk of being caught by the supposed 'road rage' aggressor.

Insp Kennedy said that earlier in the chase, Dr McCarthy narrowly missed crashing into a bus after he pulled across it in the village of Inagh forcing the bus to brake suddenly.

Judge Durcan asked why didn’t Dr McCarthy phone the Gardai or pull in at Inagh as he was being pursued.

The inspector said that Dr McCarthy had no drink taken and was fully taxed and insured.

Mr Hassett said that Dr McCarthy has never been in a courthouse in his life and has worked all his life.

Mr Hassett said that Dr McCarthy has done the State some service in providing pro bono expert State testimony in a high profile criminal trial in Cork that swung the case in the favour of the State.

Judge Durcan described Dr McCarthy’s behaviour in pulling out in front of Garda Twomey’s car as ‘arrogant’ and showing ‘bad manners’.