A father of five has been sentenced to five years in prison for dangerous driving causing the death of a married couple at a pedestrian crossing on St Stephen’s Day, 2024.His partner was given a suspended sentence for impeding his arrest by moving the car following the incident, which happened as he drove home to Blanchardstown after visiting their infant son in hospital.The deceased couple’s teenage daughter, who was also injured in the incident, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that seeing her parents being killed was traumatising. She became emotional when she said she would not have anyone to walk her down the aisle.John Halpin (46) of Whitestown Avenue, Blanchardstown, Dublin had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of Anthony (Anto) Hogg (40), and 39-year-old Georgina Hogg Moore in Blanchardstown on December 26th, 2024. At the time he struck them, he was driving through a red light.Halpin further pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to stop and leaving the scene of an accident, knowing that an injury had been caused, on the same date.Separately, Nicole Fallon (36) also of Whitestown Avenue, pleaded guilty to impeding the apprehension of John Halpin, knowing he had committed the offence of dangerous driving causing death.The Hoggs’ daughter told gardaí they knew it was safe to cross when the amber light came on for traffic. She was just ahead of her parents, who were side by side behind her. She said she heard her mother scream and then saw a car, and felt herself being hit.Passing doctors made efforts to save the couple, but Hogg Moore, whose body had been carried almost 40 metres up the road during the impact, was pronounced dead at the scene.Anthony Hogg died later that evening in hospital. Postmortem exams found the couple had died of multiple traumatic injuries resulting from the incident. Anthony Hogg (40) and his wife Georgina (39). Photograph: Facebook Forensic examiners found that the car was doing 85km per hour in a 60km per hour area, and there were no signs of emergency braking on the road.Gardaí went to the house at which the car was registered that evening and asked Fallon where her partner was. She said she didn’t know and gave them an incorrect phone number for him. Halpin handed himself in around 10pm that evening. He was arrested and interviewed, but was deemed unfit for interview the following morning due to nausea and drowsiness.Halpin told gardaí he had been exhausted, but wasn’t driving fast. He said he didn’t see the red light. He said he didn’t know why he had left the scene.“I can’t explain it,” he said. “I thought I hit someone. I didn’t know what it was. I left in sheer panic. I didn’t know how bad it was.”When Fallon was questioned, she initially repeated what she had said on the evening of the collision. However, she then said that her partner had driven home and spoken to her, and she had driven the car to Tyrrelstown, where it was found around the time Halpin was handing himself in.[ Consultant doctors who sued HSE over breach of contract seek orders for legal costsOpens in new window ]Det Gda Alan Murphy said Halpin had 43 previous convictions, including drink-driving, driving without a licence, possession of drugs for sale or supply and giving a false name and address.Fallon also had convictions, including for driving under the influence of an intoxicant and driving while disqualified.A number of family members of the deceased couple gave emotional victim impact statements to the court.Georgina Hogg Moore’s brother, Ross Moore, said the family was trying to support the couple’s children, Ryan who was 19 and Becky who was 16, who had lost both parents at once.“Trying to help them cope while processing our own loss is exhausting,” he said.The deceased couple’s daughter, Becky Joy Hogg, gave her victim impact statement by video-link. “I witnessed what no person should ever have to witness,” she said, describing her father’s lips turning blue and the light draining from his eyes, as well as seeing her mother’s disfigured body.“I relive this every single waking hour, every day of my life,” she said. “Seeing them being killed was traumatising.”She said that all Halpin had to do was stop at a red light.“But he didn’t. So we became orphans at the age of 16 and 19,” she said.She said she suffered constant flashbacks, and that the rest of her life would be dominated by this missing piece of her.“They were finally at a place in their life where they could start to relax, after so many years of working so hard,” she said. “They had me and my brother so young, they never really got to do what they wanted.”[ Former civil servant given 4½ year sentence for possession and distribution of child sex abuse imagesOpens in new window ]Judge Martin Nolan said Halpin should have seen the couple and the red light and was guilty of gross inattention. He said his speed was an aggravating factor. Leaving the scene was a crime in itself, with a maximum term of 10 years, he said.He sentenced him to five years in prison and disqualified him from driving for 10 years.He said he wasn’t sure Fallon understood at the time that two people had been killed as a result of her partner’s dangerous driving, but she had impeded the investigation.He said courts had to take into account the effect a sentence would have on third parties, in this case her four innocent children.“It seems to me it would be unjust on these children to impose a custodial sentence.He imposed a three-year suspended sentence on her and extended his sympathies to the Hogg and Moore families on what he described as a terrible tragedy.