AN off-duty police officer who admitted causing the death of a father-of-two by dangerous and drunken driving has been jailed.
Eilish MacSherry (41), of Brookmount Heights, Omagh, Co Tyrone, was at least twice over the legal drink-drive limit and was travelling at between 54mph and 83mph at the time of the crash which killed Paul Mills on October 10, 2015, Dungannon Crown Court heard on Friday.
MacSherry, who claims to remember nothing of being drunk, or of the crash on Clanabogan Road on the outskirts of Omagh, was also banned from driving for at least 15 years.
Ciaran Murphy QC, prosecuting, said that had MacSherry stopped after a first collision, in which her Saab car sheared off the wing mirror of a Peugeot car, Mr Mills would be alive today.
Judge Neil Rafferty said road deaths were "a blight on many families in this jurisdiction".
"It makes it all the more painful that a serving police officer should have known the heartbreak this sort of irresponsible behaviour brings to undeserving families," he said.
The judge said it was clear from victim impact reports that Mr Mills's death had devastated his family.
He read from the report submitted by Mr Mills's widow Anne. She described identifying her husband's body in hospital and then having to tell their children at home.
"It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life, and the screams of one, and the quiet sobs of the other will stay with me for the rest of my life," Mrs Mills said in the report.
"In that moment their idyllic and carefree childhood was brought to an abrupt end by a person who should never have been driving that night."
Earlier Mrs Mills, sitting in the public gallery yards behind MacSherry in the dock, listened as Frank O'Donoghue QC, defending, apologised on behalf of his client who has since resigned from the PSNI and given up alcohol.
He said MacSherry accepted full responsibility and wanted to offer her deepest regret but said she may have fallen asleep at the wheel.
The court heard that she had left home with no mobile phone, no purse and in her pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers and was driving towards Dromore, outside Omagh, for no apparent reason.
About half a mile from her home the driver of a Peugeot car reported a black car bearing down on her on her side of the road, after the car in front swerved to the left.
Other vehicles were also forced to get out of MacSherry's way as she continued down the wrong side of the road. One witness said MacSherry was "driving at a wild speed".
The witness, like others, described hearing a loud bang and seeing "debris and smoke being thrown into the air... like an explosion", as MacSherry's car smashed head-on into Mr Mills's Toyota Yaris.
MacSherry was told she would serve four and a half years in jail and a similar period on supervised licence.
The sentence was welcomed by police. Chief Inspector Jonathan Wilson added: Our thoughts are very much with the family and friends of Paul Mills.”
