Man who survived being shot in head and chest pleads guilty to dangerous driving causing death

David Raleigh

A man who survived being shot in the head and chest in a Limerick gun attack pleaded guilty in court on Monday to causing a motorcyclist’s death by dangerous driving five years ago.

Daniel Phillips, (35), Crecora Avenue, Ballinacurra/Weston, Limerick, appeared before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court where he admitted one count of dangerous driving causing the death of Maurice Fehilly.

Mr Fehilly, (54), from Seskin, Kilsheelan, Co Tipperary, formerly of Clonmel, suffered fatal injuries in a collision on the N24 at Drombane, Dromkeen, Co Limerick, on January 4th, 2020.

Phillips also pleaded guilty before Judge Sinead McMullan to one count dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to Thomas Traynor, at the same location on the same date.

Phillips, represented by senior defence counsel, Mark Nicholas and Antoinette Simon BL, instructed by Darach McCarthy solicitors, was remanded on continuing bail for evidence to be heard on March 7th.

Mr Nicholas told the court that Phillips continues to suffer the impact of a “very significant head injury he sustained fifteen years ago”.

“He’s been managed for that (injury) and is on medication,” said Mr Nicholas.

Phillips was shot in the head and chest as he sat in a car at John’s Square, Limerick City, on May 24th, 2010.

In 2012, the convicted gunman, Shane Mason, Sean Hueston Place, Limerick City, was jailed for 16 years after a jury at the Central Criminal Court found him guilty of Phillips’ attempted murder.

An eye-witness told the court they saw Mason dismount a bicycle and remove a black handgun from the waistband of his trousers and fire six shots into Phillips’ car.

Mason, who had 179 previous convictions, later survived two separate gun attacks, in January and May 2011.

After being shot by Mason, Phillips spent a month in a coma in hospital and he had to learn how to walk again at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dún Laoghaire.

Six months after the shooting Phillips surprised his then-fiancée by jumping out of a cardboard box and asking her to marry him.

In March 2021, Phillips was jailed for five and half years with the final 18 months suspended after he admitted in court to possessing a homemade .22 caliber gun and 88 rounds of ammunition, in 2020.

Phillips had thrown a bag containing the gun and bullets from a car that was being pursued by gardaí on the outskirts of Limerick City, on March 26th, 2020.

Phillips had sped away from gardaí after they attempted to stop his vehicle at Shelbourne Road, Limerick.

Phillips drove at speed through housing estates, drove on the wrong side of the road, broke a number of red lights, and was eventually stopped by gardaí at Parteen, south east Co Clare.

Gardaí were alerted to the bag containing the gun and ammunition by a passer by.

The sentencing judge, Tom O’Donnell, now retired, said at the time, that Phillips had aligned himself “to a serious criminal element” and that he had been “holding” the bag “to repay a drugs debt”.

“He (Phillips) was reckless in the extreme and it was fortunate nobody was injured,” the judge said.

At the time, Judge O’Donnell noted that Phillips had been left with “serious cognitive issues with his short-term memory” after he was shot in 2010.

In addition to the four-year sentence for having the gun and ammunition, Phillips was given a concurrent six month sentence for dangerous driving.

Several minutes after receiving these sentences at the Circuit Criminal Court, Phillips appeared before Limerick District Court and was jailed for seven days after he admitted thieving two hot chicken rolls from a shop in Limerick City on June 18th, 2019.