Co Antrim man banned from driving after admitting causing crash which killed 'devoted nana'
A Co. Antrim man was banned from driving from today after he admitted causing a four vehicle motorway crash which caused the death of Jenny Dunlop.
As Jonathan McNeill stood in the dock of Belfast Crown Court, defence KC Ian Turkington asked for one of the two charges to be put to the 39-year-old again.
Wearing a dark suit, white shirt and blue tie, McNeill, from the Hollowburn Road in the Ballycraigy area of Antrim, entered a guilty plea to causing the death of Ms Dunlop by driving dangerously on the M2 Southbound at Newtownabbey on 5 March 2023.
While a second charge of perverting the course of justice by deleting “applications and call record data from your mobile phone” was not put to McNeill, Judge Patricia Smyth heard that it was subsumed by the first count.
It was around 9.20pm on 5 March when emergency services were alerted to a collision on the M2, close to Sandyknowes, involving four vehicles including a Honda Civic, a VW Polo, an Audi A3 and a Volvo HGV lorry.
The motorway was closed in both directions for a time as Ms Dunlop was rushed to hospital in a critical condition.
Sadly, the 59-year-old mother-of-four passed away two days after the accident.
In court today Mr Turkington asked for the plea and sentence to be adjourned to allow time for the defence team to obtain a pre-sentence report from the Probation Board, in addition to a psychiatric report.
Judge Smyth agreed, freeing McNeill on bail and ordering a driving ban to begin from today, she adjourned the case for three weeks to fix a date for the plea and sentence.
A funeral notice for Ms Dunlop at the time of her death described her as the “Adored and much loved mother of Matthew, Rebekah, Peter and Susanna, loving mother-in-law of Cheryl and devoted nana to Charlotte and Jacob”.