A drink and drug driver killed a dad-of-five after crashing into him and escaped the scene in her boyfriend’s van.
Gemma Clout, 32, was sentenced yesterday after admitting causing the death of Patrick ‘Paddy’ Gerrard Moore, 62, by dangerous driving.
Prosecutor John Philpotts told Chester Crown Court how Clout fled the crashed Fiat Punto after hitting a pedestrian late on October 5, 2019.
Clout, of Folly Farm Close in Warrington, was picked up from the scene in Halton Brook Avenue, Runcorn, by her boyfriend who took her to her grandma’s house.
She then tried to recruit the older woman as an alibi, and when officers from Cheshire Police arrived she claimed her car must have been stolen.
After being arrested Clout was found to be twice the legal alcohol driving limit, 2.5 times the legal cocaine limit and four times the legal amount of cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine.
Her grandma told the police the truth and police found a full and empty bottle of vodka at Clout’s home, alongside some ‘white powder’.
Five days later Clout admitted to police she had ‘lost control’ of the car while under the influence of drink and drugs.
Witness Daniel Henderson was a passenger in a passing car and said he saw a ‘distressed’ woman in the driver’s seat of the Punto.
She was trying to get out but the door was ‘wedged shut’, so she climbed across the seat, got out the passenger side and walked away. He thought she looked drunk.
Mr Henderson saw a white van pull up, and Clout’s boyfriend Aaron Ryan got out and said he knew Clout and would help her. Ryan was driving the van uninsured.
Passers-by Alan Campbell and Charlotte Richardson also saw the Punto at around 11.30pm and went over to the crash scene by foot.
After spotting a ‘large hole in the windscreen and a quantity of hair stuck to the edge of that hole’, Mr Campbell spotted Mr Moore lying ‘badly injured’ near the passenger side.
He told his partner to call 999 before giving what help he could to Mr Moore.
Mr Philpotts said: ‘It appears when the defendant got out of the vehicle, she must have had to step over Mr Moore.’
Mr Moore had suffered injuries including a fractured skull, a broken leg and arm, broken ribs, and an injury to his lung.
He underwent surgery at Aintree University Hospital and spent 158 days fighting for his life unable to speak or move.
Life support was withdrawn on March 11 last year, and Mr Moore was surrounded by his five daughters.
Clout pleaded guilty at the first opportunity on December 8 to causing death by dangerous driving, failing to stop, and driving with excess alcohol, cocaine and its metabolite benzoylecgonine in her blood.
She had no previous convictions but was cautioned in 2009 for battery.
‘We’ve lost our best friend’
Mr Moore’s five daughters read separate victim personal statements to the court, including harrowing details of the devastating loss of their dad, including his ordeal in hospital.
They described their dad as their ‘best friend’ after already having lost their mum.
Simon Christie, defending, said Clout’s actions had caused a ‘lifetime of grief’ and ‘wrecked the lives of a great many people’.
But he added character references called her ‘diligent, thoughtful and caring’ and said the crash was ‘completely out of character’ – with her expressing ‘deep sorrow’ for what had happened.
A character reference from Amy Doyle, who said she knew Clout well, said she had been ‘inconsolable’ and she had ‘never seen her so distressed – all she wanted to do was have a voluntary interview with the police to tell them what happened’.
Mum-of-three Clout has a five-month-old newborn baby, and although Styal Prison’s mother and baby unit will allow them to live together while the baby is young, they would have to be separated when it reaches 18 months old.
‘Your selfish and dangerous actions’
Judge Simon Berkson said the case was ‘properly described as a tragedy’ and sentenced Clout to six months in prison, with a four-year driving ban to start when she leaves custody, with an extended retest.
He revealed in sentencing comments Clout, who was heard sobbing during the hearing, had been trying to turn round and mounted a footpath when she pressed the accelerator instead of the brake by accident.
‘You claimed you had no idea you collided with Patrick Moore, this appears a remote possibility,’ he said.
‘The circumstances show that you had no care for anyone else but yourself, from when you were first speaking to people about what happened that night.
‘Patrick Moore never recovered from his injuries and sadly died some months later from his injuries.
‘It’s clear the time was a difficult time for all his family. He will be greatly missed by those who loved him, in particular his five daughters. He was taken before his time by your selfish and dangerous actions.
‘You should never have been behind the wheel of that Fiat Punto, you had been drinking and taking [a] Class A drug, apparently some form of cocaine.’
After the hearing, Cheshire Police confirmed Clout’s boyfriend Aaron Ryan, 31, pleaded guilty to charges of driving while disqualified and without insurance.
Ryan, who lived at the same address as Clout, also admitted putting the safety of passengers at risk by driving a two-seater van with four people inside it.
He was sentenced to an eight-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, at North Cheshire Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, March 10, 2019.
Ryan was also banned from driving for 12 months and ordered to follow rehabilitation activity requirements, and pay £85 court costs and a £122 victim surcharge.
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