Former seminarian charged with multiple road traffic offences in Donegal

A probation report has been sought in the case of a former seminarian found driving when almost five times the legal drink-driving limit on one occasion and almost four times the limit on another.

Judge Éiteáin Cunningham asked that a probation and welfare report be prepared in the case of Warren Thompson.

Aged 33, and of The Curragh, Killygordon, Thompson was before Letterkenny District Court over a number of alleged road traffic offences.

Thompson, who the court heard has worked as an undertaker and considered becoming a priest, faces a charge of dangerous driving at Mullindrait, Stranorlar, on October 3, 2021, a charge contrary to section 53 (1) of the Road Traffic Act 1961 as substituted by section 4 of the Road Traffic (No. 2) Act 2011,

He was charged that, on the same date and at the same location, having been the driver of a vehicle which was involved in the occurrence of damage to property, a black Hyundai i20, he did fail to keep the vehicle at or near the place of such occurrence for a period of which was reasonable in all the circumstances of the case and having regard to the provisions of section 106 of the Road Traffic Act 1961 as amended.

In relation to the same incident, he was charged with failing to stop the vehicle after such occurrence. 

At the Sean MacCumhaill GAA Centre, Ballybofey also on October 3, 2021, Thompson is charged that he did drive a mechanically propelled vehicle while there was present in his body a quantity of alcohol such that, within three hours after so driving, the concentration of alcohol in his breath did exceed a concentration of 22 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, to wit 86 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath. 

The reading was 3.9 times the legal drink-driving limit.

Thompson was also charged with drink-driving, driving without insurance and failing to produce insurance in relation to an incident at Kilcadden, Killygordon, on October 22, 2021, where a test showed a concentration of 329mg of alcohol per 100ml urine, where the legal limit is 67mg of alcohol per 100ml of urine.

Thompson was further charged with an incident on May 9, 2021, that having been required by Garda Jason Farrell to permit a designated nurse to take from him a specimen of his blood or provide for the said nurse a specimen of urine, did refuse to comply with the said requirement. 

The charge is contrary to section 12 (3) (a) and 12 (4) of the Road Traffic Act 2010 as amended by section 9 of the Road Traffic Act (No.2) 2011.

Mr Frank Dorrian, solicitor for Thompson, said his client enjoyed eight-and-a-half years of sobriety, but there was a regression thereafter.

He said Thompson’s pattern was largely down to a pattern of alcohol addiction.

“He managed to establish sobriety and he is now abstinent for over a year,” Mr Dorrian said. “There has been a very significant struggle for this man. He stopped drinking at the age of 20 and that continued until he was almost 29 when the problem took off again.”

Mr Dorrian said Thompson is a “very reasonable and understanding individual” and that he acknowledge and accepts that a driving disqualification is now inevitable. 

Thompson, who Mr Dorrian said is a “very sincere gentleman” spent a year in a seminary, the court heard, and is heavily involved in the Church. He has worked as an undertaker and has been attending aftercare with White Oaks.

“He treats matters solemnly,” Mr Dorrian said.

Thompson told Judge Cunningham: “I have had no car for a few years”.

Judge Cunningham sought a probation report and adjourned the matter until May 5, 2025.