Ronan Keating has condemned the “broken” justice system after a man was spared jail over the death of his brother, Ciaran, in a car crash last year.
Ciaran Keating and his wife, Annmarie, were on their way to their son Ruairi’s football match in Mayo, Ireland, in July 2023, when the two-vehicle collision took place.
Dean Harte, 22, from Tyrellspass in Westmeath, collided with Ciaran’s car while driving near Swinford.
Ciaran suffered fatal injuries while Annmarie was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Harte was given a 17-month suspended sentence at Castlebar Circuit Court in Mayo on Wednesday (19 February) after pleading guilty to careless driving causing death, the Courts Service said.
He was also banned from driving for two years.
Posting to Instagram the day after the sentencing, Ronan – who helped carry his brother’s coffin during the funeral last year – said that it was a “devastating example” of “how broken our justice system is”.
“You can kill a man… and you can walk free,” the pop singer and former Boyzone member wrote. “Not even a single night in prison. Just a slap on the wrist and a ticket to carry on your life, like nothing ever happened.
“And then we wonder why we keep seeing this kind of behaviour on our roads, why people keep dying in road accidents across Ireland every week?”
He continued: “It’s a joke and it’s morally corrupt that rather than trying to fix our broken system, they all turn a blind eye.
“Shame on Dean Harte but more so, shame on everyone involved in this process that contributed to the heartbreaking outcome for my family.
“The Lord himself knows the injustice that was served and the Keating family will never find peace.”
Ronan, 47, said he and his family would “continue to fight for Ciaran’s justice. At this time we think of all the other families who have found themselves in this position, and we pray that other families never do.”
Ciaran’s wife, Annmarie, was unable to attend her husband’s funeral in Louisburgh last summer because of her medical condition after the crash.
Irish publication The Journal shared an impact statement from Annamarie and her family on the day of the hearing, which was read by one of her sons, Conall.
“Ciaran was the love of my life and the beat of my heart,” she said. “I will never get over this and be the same again.”
Their once-happy home was now “a place of desolation”, she said.
Ciaran is survived by his wife, their three children, Conall, Ruairi and Aisling, and grandchildren, Bobbi May, Reggie, Archie T and Sonnie.
Ronan performed a musical tribute to his brother at the funeral mass in July 2023, singing “This is Your Song” towards the end of the service.
The singer said the song was written after their mother, Marie, died from breast cancer in 1998, aged 51.
During the service, Ciaran was described as a man full of “humour and fun and energy” who selflessly gave time to the family-founded cancer charity and who had been taken from his family “far too soon”.
Additional reporting by Press Association
