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Vehicle used as a murder weapon

  • 25-05-2006 6:54pm
    #1
    Our man in Havana
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,473 ✭✭✭✭


    Is it possible if a person is killed by a person driving a car, can the person be charged with murder? Or is it always death by dangerous driving which attracts a lower penalty?


Comments

  • #2
    maidhc
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,726 ✭✭✭maidhc


    Bond-007 wrote:
    Is it possible if a person is killed by a person driving a car, can the person be charged with murder? Or is it always death by dangerous driving which attracts a lower penalty?

    If you intentionally run over someone then it could of course be murder, most of the time though people don't have the requisite intention for a murder charge to be brought.


  • #3
    besty
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,010 ✭✭✭besty


    maidhc wrote:
    If you intentionally run over someone then it could of course be murder, most of the time though people don't have the requisite intention for a murder charge to be brought.
    Exactly. The mens rea/intention would be the stumbling block.


  • #4
    Trojan911
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,194 ✭✭✭Trojan911


    Bond-007 wrote:
    Is it possible if a person is killed by a person driving a car, can the person be charged with murder? Or is it always death by dangerous driving which attracts a lower penalty?


    It would be all down to intent and whether it could be proved.

    True scenario: (more than fifteen years ago).

    Man had recently moved into a small village in the UK and had lived there within a year. Every morning at around the same time he went and bought the papers at the same shop around 9am.

    One morning he was knocked down by a car and killed as he crossed the road. The driver waited for police to attend and dutifully co-operated with their initial investigation.

    Checks on the desceased showed nothing initially but then the local police received a call from SB enquiring why checks were being made on this person (his name flagged up when put through Police National Computer). It transpired he was an informer now under protection.

    Traffic police widened their investigation and went back a further one hundred yards from the scene of the accident and discovered tyre burn marks on the road. That and a further witness statement, who heard tyres screeching just prior to the "accident" but not at the point of impact put the driver of the vehicle in court for murder. It turned out the driver was a contract killer and was under instructions to make it look like an accident.


    TJ911...


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