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06 Sept 2025

'How do you explain to your child with multiple disabilities his dad has been mowed down?'

Victim impact statement of Loraine Fehilly, wife of the late Maurice Fehilly who died in the collision

'How do you explain to your child with multiple disabilities his dad has been mowed down?'

The late Maurice Fehilly 'would have made a brilliant granddad'

I don't think you will ever be able to comprehend how many lives you destroyed by your actions on January 4, 2020.

Maybe if it was a genuine accident we would eventually learn to come to terms with it but it wasn't an accident.  Maurice and I were together for 34 years. We should have had another 34. 

You  took away our future and everything we had planned together. Our role as parents is to protect our children but how do you plan for an event as traumatic as this?

You forced our children, Shane, Sam and Holly into an emotional turmoil no child should ever endure.  How would you feel as a parent, to watch your children struggling to cope with what happened? 

The last time Shane saw his dad was December 27, 2019.  We were dropping him to Cork Airport to head off on a two week holiday. A week later, he was picking out his dad's coffin.

You didn't know that Maurice was a carer for our son Sam. How do you explain to your child with multiple disabilities that his dad has been mowed down while doing what he loves the most with his two best friends? 

Our once happy go lucky son has changed into a person filled with rage and anger at the world at what has been done to us.

As a result of your actions, I have lost my independence as I had to give up my job.

Maurice never got to see Holly graduate from university. Her hard work and dedication would mean she will succeed, despite what she's had to go through. He would have been so proud of her. It is amazing how it's the small details you remember when things like this happen. Maurice was putting on his bike gear earlier than normal that  Saturday. 

He hadn't had any lunch yet, and he told me that himself, Tom Traynor and Tom Conway were going to Limerick to look at a bike and be straight back. He never made it back.  

I had to sit through graphic details of his injuries in his post mortem and the overriding question in my head was how long it would have taken for him to die. Would he even have been aware of what was happening? 

My only consolation was that Tom Conway lay with him, knowing full well he was dead once he managed to find where Maurice had landed after the impact.  

You (Daniel Phillips) did nothing to help despite being aware of the devastation you had caused.  

READ MORE: Tipperary motorbike rider 'mowed down' by van driver in 'tragic' crash

Maurice will never get to meet his future grandchildren. He would have made a brilliant granddad with his wicked sense of humour. 

Every occasion that should be celebrated is an occasion now tinged with sadness because he is not here. This is something we will all continue to suffer through the rest of our lives.

Loraine Fehilly's victim impact statement was read out by the prosecuting barrister

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