A grieving mother who is demanding a tougher sentence for her teenage daughter’s killer after he smashed a car while high on ketamine, cocaine and ecstasy will see the case reviewed at the Court of Appeal.
Keilan Roberts, 22, had also taken hippy crack and downed alcohol before he got behind the wheel to kill Chloe Hayman, 17.
Roberts had met passenger Miss Hayman in a nightclub for the first time just hours earlier. She was reportedly upset and Roberts offered her a lift home – but crashed on a mountainside, killing her.
He was jailed for just three years and nine months but Miss Hayman’s mother Danielle O’Halloran blasted the sentence as an ‘insult.’
His sentence is now set to be reviewed by the Court of Appeal in September following the horrific crash in Fochriw, Caerphilly, South Wales.
Judge David Wynn Morgan told the trial previously: ‘Chloe Hayman was no statistic. She was a real, living person who would be alive today had you not taken the selfish, criminally foolish and intoxicated decision to put her in your car and to drive it’
Roberts had met passenger Chloe in a nightclub for the first time just hours earlier. She was reportedly upset and Roberts offered her a lift home – but crashed on a mountainside, killing her
Keilan Roberts, 22, had taken ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and hippy crack and downed alcohol before getting behind the wheel of his car shortly before the crash which killed Miss Hayman
The family contacted the Attorney General for England and Wales to complain about the length of prison time given to Roberts before the appeal was launched.
Ms O’Halloran said: ‘I just don’t think the sentence was long enough. It’s not enough time to sit and think about your actions.
‘I hope me and her dad can continue fighting and hopefully change something about how sentencing is looked at.
‘We’ve been given a life sentence of not having our daughter in our lives.
‘She’d only just changed from that funny little girl to this empowering woman, and I wish I could’ve had that for the rest of my life.’
Cardiff Crown Court heard Miss Hayman met Roberts at the Platform 11 nightclub in Pontypridd, South Wales, in July last year.
He spoke to her after she was seen ‘crying’ when she was unable to find a lift home before he got behind the wheel of his Skoda Octavia.
But he smashed into cattle grid railings on a mountain road.
Emergency services rushed to the scene to find a ‘large hole in the passenger side of the windscreen’ with Miss Hayman unresponsive.
At trial, prosecutor Jason Howells said Miss Hayman was fatally injured when the railings pierced the windscreen of Roberts’ Skoda Octavia.
Cardiff Crown Court heard a neighbour rushed to the scene after hearing a ‘loud bang’ at 5.50am.
The family contacted the Attorney General for England and Wales to complain about the length of prison time given to Roberts (pictured) before the appeal was launched
Chloe Hayman, 17, died when driver Keilan Roberts, 22, crashed his car while high on ecstasy and cocaine in Caerphilly, south Wales, in July last year
Mr Howells said: ‘He could see a male sitting in the driver’s seat drinking a bottle of lager and a female slumped over on the passenger side.’
Roberts told the witness: ‘I wasn’t drinking at the time of the crash. I just opened a few bottles to take the edge off. I’ve just killed someone.’
Police collision investigators found the car would have failed an MOT due to worn out rear tyres but there were no mechanical faults.
A post mortem examination revealed Chloe died of injury to the chest including cardiac avulsion.
Roberts pleaded guilty to four charges of causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed limit for alcohol and drugs.
The court heard he had 118mg of benzoylecgonine (or cocaine), 34mg ketamine and 75mg of MDMA per 100ml of blood in his system.
Roberts, of Rhymney, Caerphilly, was jailed for three years and nine months and disqualified from driving for ten years.
Ms O’Halloran said tougher sentences would be a deterrent to other drink or drug-drivers.
She said: ‘The sentencing feels like an insult to us as a family. Chloe’s life was taken at the hands of someone who made a stupid decision to drive when they were in no fit state to do so.
‘No family should ever have to experience what we have experienced and the heartache and sadness we feel as we navigate our way through life since the loss of Chloe.
‘The loss of our Chloe will hopefully spread the message to the younger generations of today to prevent another stupid decision to drive under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and to prevent another family losing an innocent life.’
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk