A CONVICTED Garda killer has appeared in court charged with a number of offences, including dangerous driving, drink driving and assaulting a Garda.
Martin McDermott of Abbey Park, Manorcunningham, was before Letterkenny District Court on his 35th birthday in relation to alleged incidents on April 14, 2020.
He is charged with two counts of dangerous driving, at Raymoghey and at Churchland on the date in question. He is further charged with drink driving at Delta View Drive, Manorcunningham and with driving without a licence.
It is also alleged that McDermott resisted arrest at Delta View Drive and that he assaulted Garda Michael Kilcoyne.
McDermott – who has over 90 previous convictions – was remanded on continuing bail. In May, those conditions were relaxed with a 9pm-9am curfew changed to 10pm-7pm.
McDermott has already served a sentence for the manslaughter of a young Garda in Co Donegal in 2009.
He was driving a car which struck Garda Gary McLoughlin, a native of Leitrim who was stationed in Buncrana and was manning a checkpoint at Burt on the night in question.
McDermott had been trying to evade Gardai during a high-speed pursuit that lasted 30km and reached speeds of up to 150kph.
Garda McLoughlin and his colleague Garda Bernard McLaughlin had been instructed not to deploy a stinger, to blow out McDermott’s tyres, because he was driving too fast and its use was deemed too dangerous.
Instead, they were tasked with getting the registration number of the car.
Just seconds later McDermott drove on the wrong side of the road, ramming the marked Garda car and ripping the engine out of it.
Garda McLoughlin took the full force of the ramming and died the following day, December 14th as a result of his injuries.
Judge Paul Kelly adjourned the case until January for directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions in the case.