Man jailed for five years for St Stephen's Day hit-and-run collision which killed married couple

A FATHER OF five has been sentenced to five years in prison for dangerous driving causing the death of a married couple as they crossed the road at a pedestrian crossing on St Stephen’s Day in 2024. 

His partner was given a suspended sentence for impeding his apprehension by moving the car following the incident, which happened as he drove home to Blanchardstown from visiting their infant son in hospital. 

The deceased couple’s teenaged daughter, who was also injured in the incident, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that seeing her parents being killed was traumatising. She became emotional when she said that she wouldn’t have anyone to walk her down the aisle.

John Halpin (46) of Whitestown Avenue, Blanchardstown, Dublin had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of Anthony (Anto) Hogg (40), and 39-year-old Georgina Hogg Moore in Blanchardstown on 26 December 2024. At the time he struck them, he was going through a red light.

Halpin further pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to stop and leaving the scene of an accident, knowing that an injury had been caused on the same date.

Separately, Nicole Fallon (36) also of Whitestown Avenue, pleaded guilty to impeding the apprehension of John Halpin, knowing that he had committed the offence of dangerous driving causing death.

Detective Garda Alan Murphy of Blanchardstown Garda Station told the court that the deceased and their 16-year-old daughter were crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing at 5.35pm that day.

Halpin was driving his car towards his home, having left Temple Street Hospital, where his eight-month-old son was being treated since before Christmas.

The Hoggs’ daughter told gardaí that they knew it was safe to cross when the amber light came on for traffic. She was just ahead of her parents, who were side by side behind her. She said she heard her mother scream and then saw a car and felt herself being hit.

There was also another lady crossing at the time, and she was ahead of the family. This woman told gardaí that all four crossed, and she heard the woman scream and car tyres screeching.

She said she moved faster and then heard a girl scream: “Dad, Dad, wake up.”

The woman was lying on the road at this stage, she said. A passer-by called emergency services and began CPR. 

Passing doctors also made efforts to save the couple, but Ms Hogg Moore, whose body had been driven almost 40 metres up the road during the impact, was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Mr Hogg died later that evening in hospital. Postmortem exams found that the couple had died of multiple traumatic injuries due to a road collision.

Forensic examiners found that the car was doing 85km per hour in a 60km per hour area, and that there were no signs of emergency braking on the road.

Debris from the Audi was found, including part of its registration plate. Body matter from Ms Hogg Moore was also found on the road at the time of the exam.

Gardaí went to the house at which the car was registered that evening and asked Ms Fallon where her partner was.

She said that she didn’t know, that he hadn’t been home all day. She explained that they had a child in hospital and were taking it in turns to stay there.

She gave them an incorrect phone number for him. They returned later to say that the number was incorrect and she again said that she had not been in contact with him.

His solicitor contacted them shortly afterwards to say he wanted to hand himself in, and he did so around 10pm that evening. He was arrested and interviewed, but was deemed unfit for interview the following morning due to nausea and drowsiness.

He told gardaí about being at Temple Street with his baby, having left home at 2am that day. He recalled having the collision on the drive home to his other three children.

He said that it was stressful and that he was exhausted, but wasn’t driving fast. He said he didn’t see the red light.

He didn’t know why he had left the scene.

“I can’t explain it,” he said. “I thought I hit someone. I didn’t know what it was. I left in sheer panic. I didn’t know how bad it was.”

He said he had mental exhaustion. He said that he could see the wing mirror was pushed in, and didn’t know if it was a moment of black out.

He said his mind switched off, that it was a surreal moment. He said that the first he really knew what had happened was when he walked into his estate and somebody said that someone had been hit by a car.

“I didn’t want to believe it,” he said.

The reason he rang his solicitor was to ask how to hand himself in, he explained. Later on he said that he could have been looking at the radio or the air conditioning when the collision happened.

“I swear I didn’t see anything. My mind’s blacked out,” he said, explaining that he had heard a thud and later saw a dent on his bonnet.

When Ms Fallon was questioned, she initially repeated what she had said on the evening of the collision. However, she then said that her partner had driven home and spoken to her, and that she had driven the car to Tyrrelstown, where it was found around the time Mr Halpin was handing himself in.

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She said that he’d got out of the car and she asked if everything was ok.

“Is it the baby?” she asked. He said he felt sick and had been in a hit. She said she wasn’t sure what he meant and that she drove the car to a mechanic but couldn’t get it to go any further and left it where it was found.

A few days later, his jacket was found on a branch in the estate where the car was found, along with a brown paper bag with two phones. The court heard that the case against her was that she drove the car away and hid the jacket and the two phones in the aftermath.

She later said she didn’t recall the conversations she’d had with gardaí in the aftermath.

Detective Garda Alan Murphy said that Halpin had 43 previous convictions, including for drunk driving, driving without licence, possession of drugs for sale or supply and giving a false name and address.

Fallon also had convictions, including for driving under the influence of an intoxicant and driving while disqualified.

A number of family members of the deceased couple gave emotional victim impact statements to the court.

Georgina Hogg Moore’s brother, Ross Moore, said that knowing that the couple was taken from them in a hit-and-run added an extra layer of anger to their grief and shock. He said that there were days when the weight of their absence was unbearable.

He said that the family was trying to support the couple’s children, Ryan, who was 19 and Becky who was 16, when they lost both parents at once.

“Trying to help them cope while processing our own loss is exhausting,” he said.

In his victim impact statement, the couple’s son Ryan Hogg said that he had been struggling to keep his life together, and that even just listening to his college lectures was a struggle.

Jennifer Hogg, sister of Anthony Hogg, told the court that there was a constant emptiness where the couple should be. She said that one of her brothers had found the grief so much that he had left Ireland.

She said that she wished every day that it was all just a nightmare.

“But it isn’t. This is our reality,” she said.

“This is not just an accident, it’s the destruction of our family,” she added. “The grief follows us every day.”

The deceased couple’s daughter, Becky Joy Hogg, was also taken to hospital, having sustained injuries to her hip and ankle. Due to her age, she gave her victim impact statement by video link from a victim suite in the courthouse.

“I witnessed what no person should ever have to witness,” she said, describing her father’s lips turn blue and the light drain from his eyes, as well as seeing her mother’s disfigured body.

“I relive this every single waking hour, every day of my life,” she said. “Seeing them being killed was traumatising.”

She said that all Halpin had to do was stop at a red light.

“But he didn’t. So we became orphans at the age of 16 and 19,” she said.

She said she suffers constant flashbacks and that the rest of her life would be dominated by this missing piece of her.

“They were finally at a place in their life where they could start to relax, after so many years of working so hard,” she said. “They had me and my brother so young, they never really got to do what they wanted.

“However, they had a flight to Paris booked together and they were all planning a trip to Japan for her father’s 40^th birthday.

“Now, all I can think is that my Mam and Dad won’t be able to do any of it,” she said. “They won’t get to see me graduate or turn 18. They won’t be able to watch me fall in love and probably get my heart broken.

“I won’t have anyone to walk me down the aisle. I won’t get a father-daughter dance at my wedding. They won’t get to grow old.”

Judge Martin Nolan said that Halpin should have seen the couple and the red light and was guilty of gross inattention. He said that his speed was an aggravating factor. Leaving the scene was a crime in itself, with a maximum term of 10 years, he said.

He sentenced him to five years in prison and disqualified him from driving for 10 years.

He said that he wasn’t sure that she understood at the time that two people had been killed as a result of her partner’s dangerous driving, but that she had impeded the investigation.

He said that courts had to take into account the effect a sentence would have on third parties, in this case her four innocent children.

“It seems to me it would be unjust on these children to impose a custodial sentence.”

He imposed a three-year suspended sentence on her and extended his sympathies to the Hogg and Moore families on what he described as a terrible tragedy.

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