Father of four drove at speeds of over 150kmh as he followed car involved in fatal Monaghan debs crash
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Extra.ie
5 days ago
- Extra.ie
Teens budgeting for cocaine alongside gowns and suits for Debs celebrations
As part of their end-of-school-year celebrations, some teenagers are now including the cost of cocaine alongside traditional Debs expenses like dresses and suits. Latest reports suggest that teens are choosing cocaine over alcohol as their drug of choice during their Debs night out. Journalist with the Irish Farmers Journal Jacqueline Hogge decided to investigate this growing trend and spoke to Andrea Gillian on Lunchtime Live on Newstalk. Pic: Getty Images Jacqueline spoke to a bus driver who has ferried hundreds of teenagers to their Debs parties over the years, and he claims cocaine use among leaving cert age teenagers is getting more and more common. 'He's been bringing young people to events for the last three or four years and he says the first time he was cleaning the bus after an event, he found 10 to 12 wraps, didn't know what they were and had to be told it was from the cocaine.' Jacqueline Hogge continued that while cocaine use is not a problem at every school or with every child, she suspects that 'normally three or four that are causing the trouble'. Pic: Getty Images 'Where there is money, there is cocaine', she added. 'With young girls in particular, they see it as a body image thing – it's less calorific than alcohol'. Pic: Getty Images A leading addiction therapist claimed back in 2020 that the teenagers going to their Debs, or Graduation Balls, are now factoring in how much money they will need to keep themselves in cocaine for the night. Michael Guerin, from the addiction charity Cuan Mhuire says he was told this by a number of concerned parents and older siblings who are already in rehab a number of years ago. 'We have clients who started using cocaine aged 13. They're in their early 20s now, and telling us that they took cocaine that young and it had a huge psychological effect'. Michael Guerin says cocaine is now as much a part of the Debs ritual as all the other trappings, like the expensive dresses and suits, hair-styles, nails, and makeup, and he says it's becoming a very very, concerning trend. Pic: Getty images A report from the Health Research Board revealed a 50% surge in the number of people seeking treatment for cocaine addiction, making this the largest annual increase in what has been a growing issue over the past seven years. Michael Guerin adds 'That report only supports what professionals have been saying for the last two years — that cocaine is taking on a life of its own,'. Cocaine plays havoc with your mood. And when it's in the mix with adolescence, which is already a trying time, it can be disastrous. They become obsessed with cocaine to the cost of everything else, including their education.' However, despite being linked with violence, the drug is now widely perceived to be 'relatively harmless and fashionable', said Mr Guerin. 'It seems to be relatively easy to access and there's a status with it,' he said. 'Cocaine is now part of the mix with cannabis and alcohol abuse'. But this new worrying trend of 17 and 18 year old's budgeting for cocaine as part of their final night out with friends from schoo is a disastrous addition to an already worrying time for parents. With leaving cert results due out in August and the Debs season already underway, parents of graduating teens will need to have nerves of steel to handle this newest development during the whole 'leaving cert' party season ahead.
Chicago Tribune
30-06-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: Eugene V. Debs arrested
Today is Monday, June 30, the 181st day of 2025. There are 184 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On June 30, 1918, labor activist and socialist Eugene V. Debs was arrested in Cleveland, charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 for a speech he had made two weeks earlier in which he denounced U.S. involvement in World War I. (Debs was sentenced to prison and disenfranchised for life.) Also on this date: In 1921, President Warren G. Harding nominated former President William Howard Taft to be chief justice of the United States, succeeding the late Edward Douglass White. In 1934, Adolf Hitler launched his 'blood purge' of political and military rivals in Germany in what came to be known as the 'Night of the Long Knives.' In 1936, Margaret Mitchell's novel 'Gone With the Wind' was released. In 1958, the U.S. Senate passed the Alaska statehood bill. In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that the government could not prevent The New York Times or The Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers. In 1971, A Soviet space mission ended in tragedy when three cosmonauts aboard Soyuz 11 were found dead of asphyxiation inside their capsule after it had returned to Earth. In 1985, 39 American hostages from a hijacked TWA jetliner were freed in Beirut after being held for 17 days. In 1994, the U.S. Figure Skating Association stripped Tonya Harding of the national championship and banned her for life for her role in the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan. In 2009, American soldier Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan, and was later confirmed to have been captured by insurgents after walking away from his post. (Bergdahl was released on May 31, 2014, in exchange for five Taliban detainees; he pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, but was spared a prison sentence by a military judge.) In 2012, Islamist Mohammed Morsi was sworn in as Egypt's first freely elected president during a pair of ceremonies. In 2016, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that transgender people would be allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military, ending one of the last bans on service in the armed forces. In 2019, Donald Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in North Korea, meeting Kim Jong-un at the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. In 2020, then-Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a landmark bill retiring the last state flag bearing the Confederate battle emblem. Boston's arts commission voted unanimously to remove a statue depicting a freed slave kneeling at Abraham Lincoln's feet. In 2022, Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in to the U.S. Supreme Court, shattering a glass ceiling as the first Black woman on the nation's highest court. Today's Birthdays: Actor Lea Massari ('L'Avventura') is 92. Actor Nancy Dussault is 89. Olympic track champion Billy Mills is 87. Oceanographer Robert Ballard is 83. Singer-songwriter Glenn Shorrock (Little River Band) is 81. Jazz musician Stanley Clarke is 74. Actor David Garrison ('Married…with Children) is 73. Actor-comedian David Alan Grier is 69. Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen is 67. Actor Vincent D'Onofrio is 66. Actor Deirdre Lovejoy ('The Wire') is 63. Actor Rupert Graves is 62. Boxer Mike Tyson is 59. Actor Monica Potter is 54. Actor Rick Gonzalez is 46. Actor Lizzy Caplan is 43. Country music singer-songwriter Cole Swindell is 42. Singer and actress Fantasia is 41. Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps is 40. Baseball player Trea Turner is 32.
Sunday World
18-06-2025
- Sunday World
Man hit speeds of over 150kmh as he followed car involved in fatal Debs crash
Members of the McCann family, who had been listening on in court, reacted angrily when it was put to Judge Finnegan there had been no indication of any racing element being involved A father of four who drove at speeds of more than 150kmh as it followed a car that was involved in a crash that claimed the lives of two teenagers as they made their way to a Debs ball in Monaghan has been handed an 18 month suspended prison sentence. Alin Sorin Gatea (46) of Carn Heights, Clones, Co Monaghan, appeared at a sitting of Monaghan District Court to face five counts of dangerous driving at various locations between Clones and Monaghan on July 31, 2023. Best friends Kiea McCann (17) and Dlava Mohamed (16) were killed when a car driven by Anthony McGinn of Drumloo in Co Monaghan left the road and crashed into a tree. Alin Sorin Gatea was handed down three terms of six months in prison, sentences which Judge Raymond Finnegan ordered to run consecutively for a period of two years. The 62-year-old was jailed for seven years at a sitting of Monaghan Circuit Criminal Court last month having previously pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of the two teenage girls. McGinn was also banned from driving for 15 years having also pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to Avin Mohamed, a sister of Dlava. Romanian national Gatea pleaded guilty to dangerous driving before Judge Raymond Finnegan during which dashcam footage taken from the factory worker's car was played in open court. Alin Sorin Gatea outside Monaghan Courthouse. Inspector Ann Marie Lardener said Gatea had been behind the wheel of an 11-registered BMW and en route to the Westenra Arms Hotel in Monaghan town with his 19-year-old son and his debs partner when the incident took place. She said conditions on the evening were wet as footage from Gatea's car was played. That showed the factory worker following behind a jeep and trailer just outside Clones town before the car in question could be seen overtaking it just past a Circle K filling station on the outskirts of the town. Inspector Lardener said as a result of forensic led investigations that followed, Gatea's car was found to have been travelling at a minimum speed of 145kmh and a maximum speed of 151kmh between the service station and the New Line junction. Anthony McGinn was sentenced to seven years in jail for causing the deaths of Kiea McCann (left) and Dlava Mohamed. The court was told Gatea was travelling at close to or double the 60kmh and 80kmh speed limit zones on the road. In defence, solicitor Catherine Taaffe was at pains to point out there had been 'no joint enterprise' or suggestion her client had been acting in concert with the other car. Members of the McCann family, who had been listening on in court, reacted angrily when it was put to Judge Finnegan there had been no indication of any racing element being involved, an admission that caused the late Kiea McCann's father Frankie to shout: 'He didn't help, f****** w*****' before being escorted out of court by a garda. Anthony McGinn's reckless driving caused the deaths of Kiea McCann and Dlava Mohamed Ms Taaffe said her client had been a permanent fixture in Ireland for the past decade who had endured significant personal turmoil in the aftermath of the incident. She said that had manifested itself through posts which had been published on social media to such an extent there was now a 'live threat' on his life. Insp Lardener replied, insisting gardaí were not aware of any such threat being present, something Ms Taaffe attempted to clarify by revealing how Gatea had made an official complaint before later withdrawing it out of fear of causing any more upset. 'His car was destroyed and his son's car was also destroyed,' she told the court. 'He suffers from PTSD and his wife has threatened to leave him and take the children back to Romania.' A copy of a social media publication in connection to the incident and Gatea's involvement was handed into Judge Finnegan which, the Justice, described as 'fairly sinister'. Ms Taaffe also said Gatea had, in fact, volunteered to hand in the dashcam footage from his car and had cooperated fully with the garda investigation that followed. Alin Sorin Gatea was also banned from driving for four years. In handing down his sentence, Judge Finnegan said there was no denying Gatea, who had one previous conviction to his name, had 'clearly put' the lives of both himself and his two passengers in danger as he handed down three separate six month suspended sentences for dangerous driving episodes at Clonkirk, Altertate Glebe and Legnakelly in Clones. Judge Finnegan ordered the three terms of six months to run consecutively, suspending their duration for two years. He was also disqualified from driving for four years with the two other dangerous driving charges being taken into consideration. Alin Sorin Gatea outside Monaghan Courthouse. News in 90 Seconds - June 17th
