Longford Garda ‘thought of colleagues who were killed’ as ‘menace to society’ crashed into patrol car

A man with 15 previous convictions for dangerous driving has been jailed for intentionally reversing his vehicle into a Garda patrol car and injuring its driver.

John Baxter (29), of Calanagh, Kilcogy, Co Cavan, first appeared before Longford Circuit Court in January, charged with assaulting a Garda and causing him harm, driving without insurance, driving without a licence, and endangerment.

When he reappeared on May 13, he entered a guilty plea to the charge of endangerment and the state withdrew the remaining three counts on the indictment.

He appeared again before Judge Jonathan Dunphy last week, where Sergeant Aisling Flynn gave evidence of the endangerment incident, which occurred on February 17, 2024.

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She outlined to Shane Geraghty BL, prosecuting for the state, that Garda Karl McNabola had commenced his duties as the driver of the official Edgeworthstown patrol car at 7pm.

He was stationary at the traffic lights at the Pound Street and Ballymahon Street junction when his attention was drawn to a car driving out of the petrol station. He was of the opinion that the male driver of the car looked “immediately suspicious” as he was sitting “still and motionless with his eyes fixed forward”.

A check of the vehicle on the mobility device indicated that the tax had expired a number of months previous.

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He followed the car, which was driven by Mr Baxter, activated the blue lights on the patrol car and the vehicle stopped. However, as Gda McNabola exited the patrol car, the other vehicle “took off at speed, spinning the wheels”.

Gda McNabola jumped back into the patrol car and activated the blue lights and sirens as he gave chase.

Mr Baxter ultimately came to a stop, then reversed at high speed into the patrol car, “pushing it back a good distance”, the court heard. Damage was caused to the grill of the patrol car and the vehicle was disabled as the engine cut out. Mr Baxter then left and drove towards the N4.

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Gda McNabola contacted control and asked for Mullingar units to keep a look out for the vehicle. He ultimately managed to start the patrol car and drove back to Edgeworthstown to report the incident to Sgt Flynn.

“Initially a vehicle check showed the car to be registered to a person in County Monaghan and we got Gardaí to call to that address, but there was nobody at the house,” said Sgt Flynn.

Gardaí proceeded to harvest CCTV from the petrol station Mr Baxter had come from, and downloaded some stills of the man who got into the driver’s side of the car. Mr Baxter was identified from those stills.

Two medical reports furnished to the court stated that Gda McNabola had suffered substantial soft tissue injuries, pain to his neck, right shoulder joint and back. He was “mentally traumatised" and had difficulty sleeping after the incident.

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At the time of the incident, Mr Baxter was disqualified from driving and on bail for a previous driving offence in November 2023. He has 51 previous convictions, most of which are for road traffic offences, including driving without a licence, no insurance, and a total of 15 convictions for dangerous driving.

He is currently serving a sentence handed down in the District Court, and has a release date of April 23, 2026.

The court heard that Mr Baxter was previously the victim of a very serious assault at a bar in 2018. The man who assaulted him received a six-and-a-half year sentence and is currently residing in the same prison.

In his victim impact statement, Gda McNabola said the incident “changed my outlook on how I do my job” as it arose from what began as a “routine traffic check”.

He said he was on his own in a rural area, any of his colleagues that could have helped were too far away and he “thought of Garda colleagues who were my friends, who were killed in similar circumstances”. He was off work for a year after the incident.

Niall Flynn BL, for the defence, told the court that his client came from a large family and that his older brother had taken his own life a number of years ago, which had a significant impact on Mr Baxter.

He said Mr Baxter’s sisters are “in relationships with certain individuals” and that there were “viable threats on his life”.

Those people, Mr Flynn said, had been involved in car rammings and Mr Baxter had been “subjected to threats and road chases” with vehicles that would have blue lights.

He put it to Sgt Flynn that, while his client had a “colourful” history of offending, with a significant number of previous convictions, those were mostly for road traffic offences, and Mr Baxter is “not inherently violent”.

“Well this incident was fairly violent,” Sgt Flynn replied.

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In mitigation, Mr Flynn told the court that Mr Baxter has had “a complex life to date”. He has a “very positive” relationship with his eight-year-old son but only gets to see him once every six weeks since being incarcerated.

He has amassed a total of five P19s since January, but has since engaged positively with various education opportunities and is now an “enhanced prisoner”.

Judge Dunphy noted Mr Baxter’s 51 previous convictions, particularly the 15 previous for dangerous driving, and the fact that one of those convictions happened after the charge before the court last week.

“To put it mildly, this man is a menace to society when he’s behind the wheel of anything with a motor,” he said.

Finalising the sentence on Tuesday, June 3, he proceeded to sentence Mr Baxter to three years in prison, suspending the final nine months for a period of two years. The sentence will be served concurrently to the one currently being served.

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