For the 11th time: Tobin buys time

Case of Irish driver who killed two kids in Hungary once again adjourned


By: MTI

2010-07-28 10:13

The High Court of Ireland has once again adjourned the extradition case of Francis Ciaran Tobin, an Irish man who ran over and killed two children while driving in Hungary in 2000.

Judicial sources told MTI in Dublin on Thursday that a two-day hearing is planned to take place after October 28. Since December 2009, this is the 11th time that the case has been adjourned.

Tobin, 43, a senior Irish Life insurance officer who represented his company in Hungary for three years, hit two children, aged two and five, when he swerved onto the pavement in his Volvo. The children died instantly.

In late 2000, when court proceedings got under way, the Hungarian court let him leave the country on bail. In October 2002, Tobin was sentenced to three years in prison in absentia. Following an appeal, the sentence was reduced to a year and a half. (This is an error in Caboodle's article. The sentence was NOT reduced, Tobin merely has the right to apply for parole after 18 months served. The Ed.)

Tobin, however, failed to return to Hungary to serve his prison term. Hungary formally asked for his extradition. The Irish Supreme Court rejected the request, arguing that Tobin had left Hungary legally before the sentence was passed.

An Irish law amendment, urged by Hungary's former justice minister Tibor Draskovics, made it possible for Irish authorities to take Tobin into custody, which they did in November last year. However, he has been freed on bail and must appear in the High Court for the hearings.

(source: caboodle.hu)