A motorist having a text-message row with his girlfriend knocked down and killed an elderly man who was changing a tyre, a jury heard yesterday.And despite this, he has the nerve to plead ‘not guilty’:
Dereck St Clair, 46, failed to spot Percy Raby, 80, at the side of the road. He ploughed into the back of the pensioner’s car, knocking it forward and killing him.Wastes of oxygen, the pair of them…
St Clair, who denies a charge of causing death by dangerous driving, had been arguing with partner Maria Hernandez-Jiminez over a holiday they were due to take the next day.
Miss Hernandez-Jiminez said St Clair had been deeply troubled in the 14 months since the crash on the A4130 near Henley. She said: ‘He always says he shouldn’t have been using the phone before but he knows he was in control of the car when it (the crash) happened. He feels so sorry for the family – we all are.’Well, if he ‘knows he was in control of the car’ it must have been a deliberate act.
So do him for manslaughter…
Meanwhile, in other underclass news:
A blind teenager who killed a woman in a joyriding crash while he was high on drink and drugs was sentenced to 12 years' youth detention.What do you reckon, out in six?
Not that this is his only offence:
Burdakay, of Birkfield Drive, who was driving his mother's Fiat Stilo, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Saturday January 29.Just lovely…
He was sentenced to 12 years' youth detention for manslaughter and three years, four months' detention for using a meat cleaver in an attempted robbery of a chip shop in January. The terms will run concurrently.
In a statement the family said that, since February 3, they had been 'turned upside down' and were 'distraught'.He didn’t ‘think that he wouldn’t harm anyone’. He didn’t care…
They said: 'We as a family lost someone very special and the world lost a very caring young lady.
'No words can explain the way we feel. We have paid the ultimate sacrifice in losing Lollie through the actions of this young man who thought that he wouldn't harm anyone. How wrong he was.
And neither of these cases were down to speed, you'll note.
8 comments:
The driving ban given to the "blind" driver was the icing on the cake! Is his eyesight going to be magically restored while he is in the nick?
Too bad his victims don't matter to the Courts.
The terms will run concurrently.
Perhaps a legal minded reader can tell me why we don't use 'consecutively' any more.
Judges may whinge about 'hands being tied by sentencing guidelines' But as lot's of these case have multiple sentences, running 'consecutively' all those 2 years for this, 3 years for that, could add up to a fair bit of bird.
In this case 12 years plus 3 years 4 months = 15 years 4 months.
and out in 8 , everyone's a winner, well not him obviously, but that's the point.
@Anon - AIUI, the disqualification is a long-stop - prevents him getting a Licence even IF his sight improves.
@Cat - The 'norm' seems to be that Courts give 'concurrent' sentences for offences that occurred together.
"Dereck St Clair, 46, failed to spot Percy Raby"
"Failed to spot", implies that he was looking in that direction in the first place.
Just because both offences happened in January doesn't mean they occurred together.
I'm with the Cat. Consecutive sentences should be applied.
"And neither of these cases were down to speed"
Oh dear, oh dear, we're never going to agree on this one. It's a while since I heard of anyone being killed by a stationary car. Was physics perhaps not your strongest subject?
If what you meant to say was that neither killer was doing more than the speed limit, well (a) I don't see where it says that about Burdakay and (b) if St Clair had been speeding Percy Raby would have stood even less chance.
According to Mr Grumpy, I guess that ALL accidents involve speed, which makes "involving speed" a pointless concept. Maybe the authorities should stop creating statistics for it, Mr Grumpy? Would you agree?
"The driving ban given to the "blind" driver was the icing on the cake!"
Yes! But Mijolinir has the answer.
"Perhaps a legal minded reader can tell me why we don't use 'consecutively' any more."
If it was up to me, I would. Every chance I get.
"It's a while since I heard of anyone being killed by a stationary car."
I meant that speed alone was not the key here. As I suspect you well knew.
"...and (b) if St Clair had been speeding Percy Raby would have stood even less chance."
He's dead. It doesn't get worse than that. If he'd been speeding, Raby wouldn't be double-dead, would he?
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