FURY AT LENIENCY
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REBECCA SHERDLEY LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT
12:00 - 24 December 2004
Road safety campaigners have criticised the sentence handed to a learner driver who killed her sister in a crash.
Mother-of-three Mandy Rawlinson, of Station Road, Carlton, was given a 15-month sentence, suspended for two years, at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday. She was banned from driving for four years.
As the Post reported Judge Jonathan Teare spared Rawlinson from prison after he heard it may result in two of her children going into care.
And he said he was satisfied 35-year-old Rawlinson was stricken with grief and remorse by the accident.
She admitted causing death by dangerous driving and driving with no licence or insurance when she crashed into an oncoming car. Her sister, Angela Rawlinson, died.
A family friend also in the car was in a coma for two weeks and two of Rawlinson's children were injured seriously. All have
since recovered.
After yesterday's sentencing hearing, Geoff Pay, from Astral Grove, Hucknall, who lost his daughter Kirsty Pay in 2002 after she was killed in a 'death trap' car, said he was furious.
"We show continuous leniency towards these offenders. She showed total disregard for the law. Why does society have to allow for this because she showed remorse?"
His daughter Kirsty, 18, was a back-seat passenger in a Ford Escort XR3i when it smashed into another vehicle - splitting the car in two and flinging her body into a field. The car had no MOT and had been up for sale for spare parts and advertised in a supermarket for just £100.
Wendy Carter, for road safety charity Brake, said Rawlinson had to live with what she had done for the rest of her life.
"I hope people will hear about this and think carefully before driving. The sentence is very lenient, but she does have a life sentence for dealing with it."
The court heard Rawlinson, who had no previous convictions for driving offences, had been in a Ford Mondeo on December 18 last year when she crashed on the A611 between Hucknall and Newstead Village.
Rawlinson turned right in the path of a four-door Vauxhall Cavalier. The impact, on the front-seat passenger door, killed Angela, 32, from Newstead.
Vanessa Marshall, defending, called for the exceptional course. "This was an incident that arose out of a momentary lapse of error," she said.
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So, if..... The rest is of no use whatsoever to anyone.
Hugo BR Moderator
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Tommo, there are people from a huge cross section of society that should feel welcome here. Single mothers are just one sector of this.
Your comments could snowball into an unecessary arguement between BR members, so they have gone. Please do not polarise huge sections of society in this manner. Your views would be better put thus:
"Often because of young children involved it appears that those with a primary responsibility for their care can seem to escape the same tough punishments as those without any dependents."
Same point of view but not quite so emotive, if you know what I mean.
Hugo - BR Moderator
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Hugo,
Your website your rules and I have no problem with that. For the record I consider my original post to be a plain statement of the facts and not trollish in anyway.
Thommo.
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Thommo
Just to reply, your response sits comfortably with me. The use of the word 'trollish' may have been inapropriate, and thus I would be prepared to substitute this for the term 'unnecessarily emotive'.
Having been a contributor for some time now and seen how unnecessary areguements are started, I tend to reword emotive posts that I feel could draw out such an arguement between backroomers, thus hopefully avoiding the need for even more moderating later.
Your post was obviously written in good faith but we don't need any possible bandwagons etc at the moment.
I hope you would agree that the essence of your post is still present and the point you have made is still explicit.
I have now amended my edit of your post to reflect the above.
Oh, and it's not my website but HJ's unfortunately ;) We just try to keep things ticking along nicely.
Cheers
Hugo - BR moderator
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Some of us seem to be going over the top on this one.
Surely there is a big difference between a learner-driver who either panicked or lost concentration for a moment and the driver who killed Kirsty Pay, who knowingly went out in a death-trap car with no MOT.
What would be the point of putting Mandy Rawlinson in prison (whether or not she has children)? She could perhaps have been disqualified for longer, but unless the report quoted by Schnitzel missed something, this is not something done deliberately or even recklessly.
There but for the grace of God go all of us - can any of us say we've NEVER lost concentration for a moment? Roll on the day when side impact protection becomes universal in cars. There are so many more people on the roads nowadays - any of whom could have a lapse in concentration at any moment.
Keep prison for violent offenders, including those who deliberately or recklessly drive dangerously. Bad driving through carelessness should carry periods of disqualification, depending on seriousness, followed by another test. That last point is one which might make more people think. It could be applied to all disqualifications, including drink-driving.
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Agree with Avant. Prison is for those who knowingly commit a serious criminal offence, or who continually commit minor offences and disregard non custodial sentences. To spend years locked in a 12 x 8 cell in the company of violent and unpleasant people because of a mistake, however stupid that might be, is an inhuman way to treat anybody. It serves no purpose other than to satisfy the venegence of society.
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Do you think Tom, that driving without a license or insurance should not be treated as a serious criminal offense?
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PS Excuse the American spellings, I must change the "checker".
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It's not one that warrants a prison sentence, unless the offence is repeated after a first conviction when clearly the miscreant is in need of a sharper lesson.
Everyone should be given the chance to mend their ways before their liberty is taken away.
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Just to make it perfectly clear, I was NOT referring to the lady concerned in the tragic case which started this thread. My view is that repeat offenders in dangerous driving cases - those who've already been banned - should be jailed.
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