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news
jennie dowd - via merseyside policeHit-and-run driver who killed cyclist jailed for 12 months
A hit-and-run driver who killed an NHS worker who was cycling in Liverpool has been jailed for 12 months.
Jennie Dowd (pictured), aged 31, died in hospital nine days after she was struck by 24-year-old driver Lucy Ashton in Sefton Village on the morning of Sunday 27 September last year.
Ashton, who has also been disqualified from driving for 12 months, pleaded guilty last month to causing death by careless driving and failure to stop.
The crash happened very close to the home of Ms Dowd’s father Peter Dowd, the Labour Member of Parliament for Bootle.
Speaking in court ahead of Ashton being sentenced, he said: “On the Sunday morning she was knocked down, I could hear emergency services’ sirens and I could hear a helicopter close by, breaking the silence of that quiet morning.
“Little did I know they were on their way to help Jennie, who lay dying in the road just 100 yards from where I live.
“The idea that I was just a minute away from where she had been knocked down, deserted and left alone by the driver, injured and dying has stayed with me ever since.”
He continued: “The room where she was born at Aintree Hospital and the room in which she died on the same hospital site was just 300 yards away.
“But that short journey belied the real limitless journey between her birth and death,” he added, saying that his daughter had lived “a life packed out with giving which had such a positive effect on so many other people’s lives.”
Merseyside Police Roads Policing Inspector Stuart McIver said: “This is a heart-breaking case in which Jennie, a beloved wife, daughter, granddaughter, sister, aunt, friend and colleague, lost her life due to the carelessness of Ashton.
“No sentence could begin to reverse the pain that Jennie’s family and friends have suffered since, but hopefully this verdict brings some healing and sense of justice.
“That Ashton chose to abandon the scene of this collision, essentially leaving Jennie for dead, is a decision she will have to live with as she serves her sentence.
“I would implore anyone who drives a car or other vehicle on our roads to be considerate of all other road users,” he added.
“This collision, like so many, was an avoidable tragedy which has devastated so many people.”
In a victim impact statement, Ms Dowd’s wife, Samantha Brighton, said: “Jennie's death is the least remarkable thing about her. I want to tell you about the impact of her love, joy, kindness and good nature on my life, before her death.
“Jennie and I met in South Africa in 2015. What are the chances of two people who lived 8,000 miles apart, finding each other and discovering they were the ones they'd always been searching for?
“We were engaged 11 months later – married three years after that. I moved my entire life from South Africa to nest with Jennie in Liverpool, a city I now proudly call home.
“In this time, Jennie held me, supported me, lifted me up and championed me in every way. She had an innate ability to make you see yourself through her beautiful green eyes.
“Jennie challenged me to be the best version of myself, while also accepting me and others just as we are. What a skill.”
She continued: “I never saw myself as a mother. Jennie changed that. Jennie made me see all the love I, we, together, had to give.
“Just two days before the accident, Jennie and I had picked our sperm donor and booked our first round of IVF treatment to hopefully start a family of our own.”
Just five days before Ms Dowd was killed, she had passed an interview for a job in the NHS Transformation Unit, which helps form the future direction of NHS Trusts throughout the country.
Ms Brighton added: “She was ambitious but always humble and incredibly hardworking. I for one was not surprised she got the job. She was so excited about this new chapter and I was so incredibly proud of her.
“I cannot begin to detail the magnificent work she did and the exemplary care she applied to her delivery, every single day.
“I think of all the great work she would have done, the lives she would have changed, the even greater mark she would have left on this world had she still been with us today.
“So here I stand today with this,” she added. “Two wedding rings instead of one, wedding photos that make me cry, a house that's too big for just me, dwindling hopes for creating my own family, fewer reasons to laugh, gratitude for Jennie's family who've welcomed me with open arms, longing for my own family back home.
“Most of all I'm left with an immense grief. I grieve for the life we had planned. Married for only 18 months, we deserved so much more.
“We worked so hard to build this life, one which celebrated our love, but we were robbed. There is no way to rectify this tragic situation.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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53 comments
My deepest sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of Jennie Dowd.
The 18 month ban (from link, thanks SS) is inadequate.
A bit more background. Dont read if you dont want to be even more enraged.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/12-month-jail-senten...
Maybe its time we started a crowdfunder to provide a legal fund to appeal every single one of these laughable sentences.
I agree. Unfortunately the sentencing for crimes below super serious ones like Murder and Manslaughter are not appealable.
This looks like a classic downgrade from Dangerous driving - either because of CPS or because they didnt have any evidence or witnesses.
Would have to see the judges remarks to be sure but it seems well on the lienient side considering the aggravated circumstances of failing to stop. The cynic in me wonders where the driver was on Saturday night.
I think there is a campaign to make failing to stop a higher degree crime in its own right as right now you are much better off not stopping if you worried you might be under the influence.
I cannot fathom how anything that involves injury or death is anything other than dangerous by definition. The evidence is irrefuutable.
The cynic in me wonders where the driver was on Saturday night.
According to the other link, she was up until 230 arguing with her boyfriend and then rushing to work the next morning. She did contact the police a few hours after and no mention of blood tests so Drink/Drugs might have been ruled out.
Ryan's Law petition now over 167000 signatures and has been waiting 152 days for a debate. A shocking example of how parliament treats genuine concerns of it's citizens.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/575620
I sincerely wonder what extenuating circumstances this driver could have presented with that have caused such a lenient sentence. It's bizarre! Even in schools where I work, the normal practice is to sanction severe wrongs with severe punishments, keeping the wrongdoers' circumstances in mind but NOT to lessen or reduce punishment - simply to help support them after the punishment is issued.
Example - a student with a Special Educational Need carries banned substance to school. Student with Special Educational Need is still issued with a fixed-term exclusion or permanent exclusion, but then immediately placed into contact with a social worker from MASH (the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub - local council, schools, police, social workers etc working in conjunction) to support their rehabilitation. Their Needs could have been a reason for their wrongdoing, but not an excuse. This refrain gets used a lot in schools.
Can this not be translated to the criminal justice system, or am I just being naive?
I sincerely wonder what extenuating circumstances this driver could have presented with that have caused such a lenient sentence.
She pleaded guilty AND had some ""extremely powerful references" described a hardworking carer of "positive excellent character"". Plus she also said the sun was in her eyes.
Oh, okay, that's alright then.
I actually thought you had thrown in the last sentence as a sort of despairing comment until I found the liverpool echo link.
I wonder if anyone checked the orientation of the road and the weather for that day.
It says volumes that I barely even questioned that last sentence, or that it was in any way cynical or satirical.
I wonder if anyone checked the orientation of the road and the weather for that day.
Sad enough to say I did (well most of it, not the weather). Sun rise was 707am, accident at 830am. Assuming the places she ended up afterwards was in initial direction of travel then the road is mostly south easterly with some almost 90 degree bends along it which means taking a corner could put the sun directly in your eyeline, especially if the visor had been moved to the side window for some of the travel. However still not an excuse for any death dealing.
Perhaps she ought to have driven more slowly, or even stopped.
Thinking about it - I'm sure there's some sort of guide, or code, or something, to help advise road users on the best course of action, and I'm pretty sure that document (presuming I'm not imagining it) recommends doing just that.
If you don't have the basic human compassion to not leave someone for dead in the street, then you have no place driving on public roads ever again. A lifetime driving ban would be far more suitable and more importantly is an essential part of reducing danger to the public.
But surely it could have just been a sack of spuds they hit that made the noise, or a deer...
Unfortunately the link provided by secret_squirrel shows that driver did see the cyclist in their mirror after they had hit them and "panicked" before leaving them for dead
FTFY
Pathetic!
Murder with a blunt instrument, 12 month sentence and out in 6, plus a 12 month ban.
Wouldn't want to deprive the poor dear from making a living while her victim never gets a chance whatsoever.
The justice system in this country is inept.
Another shockingly lenient sentence. Sentence should be more than that if everything else had been by the book, but to only get that sentence after having hit and run is astonishing. And a 12 month ban? Really?
Yet another tragic and senseless loss of an innocent life, and yet another shockingly inadequate 'sentence' for the perpetrator of the crime.
The one year imprisonment is arguably too lenient, but the 12 month ban is frankly ridiculous. This proven killer will be out there again behind the wheel far too soon.
As bad as that sentence is, in a city close to where I live, a hit and run fatality on a cyclist resulted in a mere $500 fine plus probation for 2 years.
Motorist fined $500 in relation to fatal hit-and-run in Niagara Falls
https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/news/niagara-region/2021/10/06/motor...
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