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Drunken driver who killed two pals in crash back in jail for attacking garda

The officer was trying to help when Dermot Dowd (31) turned on him, damaging his stab vest and uniform during the arrest.

Today at 16:33

A YOUNG man who once killed two friends as a drink driver has been jailed again for trying to bite and punch a garda who found him passed out drunk on a doorstep.

The officer was trying to help when Dermot Dowd (31) turned on him, damaging his stab vest and uniform during the arrest.

The previous death driving incident in Donegal had weighed heavily on Dowd for years and he had found it “hard to adjust to society” after his release from prison, Dublin District Court heard.

Judge Patricia Cronin jailed him for eight months for his latest offences.

Dowd, from Crumlin, Dublin pleaded guilty to garda obstruction, criminal damage, threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour and public intoxication.

The court heard gardai were called to Blessington Street Upper, Dublin 7 on April 28 as members of the public had concerns for Dowd who was sleeping rough on a doorstep.

The gardai attempted to wake him “to no avail” and called an ambulance.

When he awoke, a garda tried to speak to him. He was under the influence of an intoxicant and began screaming and shouting at the garda and members of the public.

The garda decided to arrest him and Dowd tried to punch him, grabbed hold of his stab vest and got blood on his fluorescent jacket.

Fire brigade personnel had to assist the garda in restraining the accused, who tried to bite the garda’s leg.

Separately, last May 12, gardai were called to Spar on Amiens Street where it was reported Dowd had threatened staff who feared for their safety. He was shouting and screaming and waving his hands at them when gardai arrived and arrested him.

Dowd also admitted theft in an incident on November 11 last year, when he stole two hats worth a combined €140 from a shop on St Stephen’s Green.

The accused had 73 prior convictions, including public order offences. The most serious was from Letterkenny Circuit Court in 2018, when he was jailed for five years for dangerous driving causing death, as well as driving while over the alcohol limit.

Defence solicitor Caroline Egan said this had “weighed very heavily on him over the last number of years.”

He had a serious drink problem and had been homeless before living with his sister recently. He had been in prison on remand since August 15 when he appeared in court.

Dowd had lost his mother at Christmas and had been “drinking continuously since then.”

He now wanted to “get things together” and better his life, Ms Egan said.

“He’s somebody who needs help,” she said.

“I was in prison during the pandemic and I found it very hard to adjust to society after my release,” Dowd told the judge. “I’m very sorry for my behaviour.”

“I’ve given up my life of criminality,” he said, adding that he was not using drugs and it was “just drink really that’s my downfall.”

The judge said Dowd was a “gentleman who needs some assistance” and gave him sentences totalling eight months, backdated to when he went into custody.

Friends Kiara Baird (19) and Maria Wallace (38) were passengers in a car driven by Dowd when he lost control outside Ballybofey, Co Donegal, on September 21, 2016.

After the crash that claimed the women’s lives, he initially tried to claim that Ms Wallace, a mother-of-three, was driving the Citroen C3 car which crashed at Glenfin Road.

He later admitted drinking for hours in a local bar with the two before getting behind the wheel.

Ms Baird died at the scene while Ms Wallace died a short time later in hospital after both had been thrown out of the car in the crash.

Dowd had pleaded guilty and as well as being sentenced, was banned from driving for 15 years.