The devastated brother of a teenage boy mowed down by a hit and run driver claimed the killer stuck his finger up at the family during the trial.
Lee Henry, 13, from Darndale in Dublin, died in 2016 when he was knocked down by Dean Shelley, who fled the scene before later handing himself in to gardai.
At Dublin’s Circuit Criminal Court last week Shelley, 29, was given an 18-month sentence with 10 months suspended. With remission he will be free next June.
Lee’s brother Karl Henry, 26, told RTE’s Liveline yesterday: “He was sticking up his finger and smiling at us [outside court]. He was trying to provoke us.
“He was grinning all the time in court, he was walking past laughing at us. He wasn’t sorry one bit.”
Karl said the sentence has devastated his whole family all over again.
He added: “It was like the judge saying that’s all Lee was worth, eight months. Nothing would ever be good enough to bring Lee back but that wasn’t good enough.”
Shelley, who has previous convictions for drugs and driving offences, handed himself in to gardai about three hours after he hit the teen and pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death and failure to stop at the scene.
