As a result of events on north Belfast's Whitewell Road in September 2001, Thomas McDonald lost his life and Alison McKeown lost her liberty.
The fact that their fates could very easily have been reversed seems to have been lost on those who are campaigning so stridently for Alison McKeown's two-year prison term to be lengthened.
A court heard that Thomas McDonald, who was then 16, took a day off school and chose to cycle alone from his home to a nearby interface area with the intention of throwing a brick at a passing car, which he assumed would be driven by a Catholic, and then making his escape.
If the missile had smashed through the windscreen of the vehicle, the motorist and any passengers might well have been killed or suffered serious injury.
Similar incidents have had fatal conse-quences in other parts of Belfast and else-where, and Thomas McDonald could only have been well aware of the seriousness of his actions.
Purely by chance, Alison McKeown, who was then 31, was behind the wheel of the first car to arrive at the spot where Thomas McDonald was lying in wait.
He threw the brick with force and accuracy, only to see it bounce off the windscreen and bonnet, leaving the vehicle damaged and the driver unhurt but shocked and intensely angered.
She saw her attacker flee on his bike and, according to her lawyer, on the spur of the moment decided to give chase towards a neighbouring loyalist estate.
Up until that point, beyond the slightest doubt, Thomas McDonald had been the aggressor and Alison McKeown was the victim.
Within a matter of seconds everything changed utterly as the car struck the bike and Thomas McDonald lay dead on the side of the road.
Alison McKeown left the scene without stopping and subsequently went to a police station, where she was initially charged with murder.
She claimed in court that the collision had been an accident and that she had only been trying to scare the teenager, but a judge thought otherwise and convicted her of manslaughter. However, the judge also said that she had engaged in an impulsive reaction and her offence had not been premeditated.
Thomas McDonald most certainly did not deserve to die, but his violent conduct would surely have resulted in a custodial sentence in a young offenders' centre if he had survived and been arrested.
Alison McKeown, for her part, had to be punished by the courts for breaking the law and she has, by any standards, paid a severe penalty for her behaviour.
Apart from her jail term, to be followed by two years on probation, she has been separated from five of her children while in custody, and a sixth, who was born while she was on remand, will be taken away from her by the authorities at the age of nine months.
Additionally, she and her relatives have had to endure threats shouted across courtrooms at various times up to and including the day of her sentencing.
Her family believe that they are in real danger and it is obvious that, after her release, she will never again be able to live in her home area.
The heaviest price of all was paid by Thomas McDonald and, while any fair-minded observer would accept that he contributed significantly to his own misfortune, there must be enor-mous sympathy for the ordeal of his parents.
Suggestions over recent days that the Attorney General should insist on Alison McKeown's sentence being referred to the court of appeal, with a view to its being increased, are disturbing and indicate a lack of basic compassion in some quarters.
Alison McKeown and Thomas McDonald, for very different reasons, were both caught up in a tragedy. The case has run its course and should now be regarded as closed.
