Disqualified driver Darren McGrath jailed for drive of ‘utter madness’ in stolen milk lorry

Judge Patricia Smyth told Darren McGrath his “reckless rampage” in the seven-ton vehicle had “exposed many other innocent people to harm and it is only by very good fortune that you did not kill anyone”.

And the Belfast Crown Court judge also warned the father of one, with 70 previous convictions, that unless he controlled his behaviour, most of his adult life would be spent behind bars, “because it is the protection of the public that is more important that your stints in prison”.

McGrath, of no fixed abode, had pleaded guilty to a total of 15 charges including causing injury to a woman knocked unconscious when he smashed into her Nissan Juke car, injuring pursuing police and causing damage to their vehicles and to a number of other cars.

Prosecution counsel Robin Steer said the offences arose out of the earlier hijacking of a Dale Farm Iveco milk van as it made deliveries in the Castle Street area of Belfast around 9am on January 5 this year. McGrath was not involved in the theft, but an hour and a half after it collided with a parked VW car in the Whiterock, it was spotted in the Divis area.

Police in a Vauxhall Insigina car were about to turn into Leeson Street, when the milk lorry rammed into the front driver door, scattering milk carton about the road, and injuring the two officers inside. McGrath, now behind the wheel, continued on, colliding with other vehicles.

Mr Steer said that the lorry, sparks shooting from the sides of it front rim now with a deflated tyre, ended up travelling the wrong way along nearby Cavendish Street, a one-way street, and smashing into the Nissan Juke car, which it rammed twice more before coming to rest by a wall.

Although the front seat passenger of the van was seen making his escape down a side-street, a drugged McGrath claimed he was the passenger, having taken a lift from a friend, even though he suspected the van was stolen.

Defence counsel Sean O’Hare who described McGrath’s driving as “a serious piece ... of utter madness”, said the “triggers” behind his offending was the “confluence of three things” which had come together.

One involved the loss of contact with his young son, “mixed then” with his “running into bad company” and his decision to “self medicate” and coming across an already stolen vehicle the “weakness of his own mind and character” allowed him to get involved.

However, Mr O’Hare said McGrath, who’d expressed “genuine and sincere remorse”, had now reached a “turning point in his life” although given his offending “he knows there will be a further period of imprisonment”.

McGrath will serve half of his sentence, 18 months, in custody, followed by a similar period on licensed supervised parole.