A MAN who released the brake on an articulated lorry causing it to crash in a Derry shopping centre resulting in £200,000 worth of damage has been jailed today for nine months.
Ryan Doherty (23) of Durrow Park in Derry admitted tampering with a motor vehicle and six counts of criminal damage on Sunday, September 11, 2016.
He pleaded guilty to all the charges when he faced Derry Magistrates’ Court.
The court heard Doherty was caught on CCTV pushing the handbrake release button on the truck before running off with two pals.
At 4.45 am the articulated truck rolled down Linenhall Street and Newmarket Street, hitting walls, traffic lights, bollards and a car before crashing cab first into the Foyleside Shopping Centre.
The judge branded his antics as a “disgraceful thing to do”.
Jailing him for nine months with a further nine months on supervised licence following his release from prison, District Judge Barney McElholm told Doherty that while in prison he can reflect on how funny his antics had been.
