The Last Days of Katy French
Kieron "Wolf" Ducie, describes what happened on the night Katy French passed away in compelling detail. He also recalls the build-up to the tragic events that unfolded.
Jason O'Toole, 20 Nov 2008
It will be exactly a year on December 2 since Kieron ‘Wolf’ Ducie frantically drove the critically ill Katy French to hospital.
As the jeep raced – with a flashing blue light attached to its front – through the narrow country roads of the sleepy village of Kilmessan towards Navan Hospital, Ducie’s then girlfriend Ann Corcoran sat in the back of the jeep, panicking wildly, as she cradled the unconscious model in her arms.
Ducie recalls driving “like a madman”. All the lights were on in the car. Approaching bends, he pounded on the car’s horn – anything to warn people of the danger – as he shot through the winding back roads as fast as was humanly possible. “I nearly crashed the jeep a couple of times on the back roads. Crazy driving. Headlights were flashing. Tearing down the road. I’m sure there was people going, ‘Ring the police – there’s a madman on the road...’ It was pandemonium in the jeep. Mayhem.”
Halfway there, the 24 year-old model briefly regained consciousness but didn’t speak. Ducie remembers turning around to look at Katy French. The expression on her face, he says, will haunt both him and Ann till the end of their lives. “That look will never ever go away from me,” he says.
“Then she had another heart attack in the jeep.”
According to media reports, Katy had several heart attacks that morning.
By his own estimation, Ducie made it to Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan in a breakneck 12 minutes – about half the normal journey time. It was approximately 10am on Sunday morning when his jeep screeched up to the front of the A&E.
Some tabloids alleged that the 38-year-old Ducie had “dumped” Katy at the doors of the hospital. This rankles even now, almost one year on.
“I nearly drove the jeep through the front door of the casualty unit,” insists Ducie. “I came up close as I could to the doors. I remember jumping out – I left the keys in the ignition – and I grabbed her. There was nobody at the door waiting for me. I carried her through the door in my arms. I kicked the door and it swung open. I fell kind of sideways and knocked over trays of surgical equipment. I remember running through all the curtains and getting her onto a table. I was screaming at the nurse and doctor. The doctor – because I was in the way – pushed me out of there.”
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