Woman who killed baby in crash outside hospital has sentence reduced
A driver who killed an eight-month-old baby in a crash outside a hospital has had her sentence reduced.
Bridget Curtis, 71, was jailed for four years in January, after she pleaded guilty to causing the death of Mabli Cariad Hall by dangerous driving.
Mabli was struck by a white BMW outside Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, on Wednesday 21 January 2023.
She was airlifted to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and was then moved to the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, where she died of her injuries four days later.
Mabli's father, Rob Hall, said in a victim impact statement that life without his daughter had been "horrendous" and he did not know how the family could "recover from such trauma".
Her mother, Gwen Hall, described Mabli as her "best friend, [her] shadow, [her] second skin" and added that the day her daughter died was the day her life "irreversibly changed for the worse".
Speaking after January's sentencing hearing, Mabli's grandfather Paul Sambrook said the "nightmarish chapter" had come to an end and urged people to "take care every time you sit behind the wheel of [their] car".
'Manifestly excessive'
At the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, Curtis's barrister said the sentence should be reduced.
Three senior judges ruled that Curtis's sentence was "manifestly excessive" and reduced it from four years to three.
Mr Justice Butcher, sitting with Lord Justice Bean and Judge Richard Marks KC, said it was a "truly tragic case".
"We have read the very moving victim personal statements of Mabli's parents, expressing their grief at the death of their beloved baby," he added.
"No one could fail to sympathise with them for the appalling loss that they have sustained."
Curtis, who attended the appeal hearing via video link from HMP Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire sat in a wheelchair throughout.
'Law-abiding life'
Swansea Crown Court previously heard Mabli and her family were visiting her grandmother, who was receiving end-of-life care at the time of the crash.
Mabli's father had just put her back into her pushchair on a grassed area under some trees opposite the hospital's entrance "when he heard the sound of an approaching vehicle".
The court heard Curtis had given her daughter a lift to the hospital for an appointment and had stopped the car outside the main entrance, with the engine running.
Her daughter was unable to see her handbag in the back of the car and the defendant "turned around from her seat to look into the back".
"The defendant had failed to switch off the vehicle and had failed to place the car, which was an automatic-geared vehicle, into a parked setting," Craig Jones said, prosecuting.
In four and a half seconds, the vehicle reached a top speed of 29 miles per hour and travelled a distance of 28 metres before the collision.
In mitigation, John Dye said the defendant had "led a blameless, law-abiding life".
'Tragic case'
Mr Dye, representing Curtis again at the Court of Appeal, said it was a "tragic case" but that the issue was "one of pedal confusion".
He said it was "clearly dangerous driving", but that in terms of culpability, the four seconds were "more akin to...a lapse of concentration".
Craig Jones made no oral submissions to the court on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Mr Justice Butcher added that Curtis "did not intend to cause any harm" but that her driving was "well over the threshold of dangerousness".
He added that the court accepted Curtis's remorse to be "genuine" and said it was "inattention and confusion as to which pedal she was pressing that caused this tragedy".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
17 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Terrifying moment driver catapults holidaymakers into air after row over AirBnB - as he is jailed
By AirBnB rental. Johnathan Newbury, 33, was yesterday jailed for ten years for ploughing his SUV into pedestrians Ryan Jones, 18, and a 17-year-old boy. He had armed himself with a zombie knife and was 'intent on violence' during the car attack in July last year, a court heard. The row broke out after Newbury discovered the AirBnB he had rented for the weekend in Cardiff, Wales, had accidently been double booked. Newbury and his friend Elliott Fiteni, 23, were already inside the property when Mr Jones and the teenager turned up for their own stay. Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard Newbury began hurling threats at the pair, shouting 'I'll f*** you up' through a window. He then hunted the men in a black SUV before mowing them down in the street. Newbury then fled the scene as the victims were left on the ground with serious injuries. Mr Jones suffered injuries to his pelvis and right foot while the teenager lost consciousness and sustained injuries to his jaw, ribs, chest and abdomen. Mr Wilson said the row had started over the booking made in the Cathays area of Cardiff in July of last year where Newbury was due to stay with friend Elliot Fiteni. He said: 'Mr Jones, [...] and another friend had booked an Airbnb on Bruce Street called the Comfortable Stay. 'By chance, a booking had been made at the same address on behalf of Mr Fiteni, who accepted he stayed at the address along with Mr Newbury. 'They were already at the building when Mr Jones and [...] walked towards it.' Newbury, of Cardiff, was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm and possession of a bladed article. Judge Jeremy Jenkins Newbury 'You were present at an AirBnB at Bruce Street in Cardiff, the two complainants [...] and Mr Jones had also booked accommodation at the same address and there had been an earlier altercation.' The judge said Newbury had then been part of a group 'armed with what has been described as a zombie knife' and 'intent on violence'. He said: 'The clear aim was to attack [...] and Mr Jones, both ran away from the scene.' Judge Jenkins said Newbury was the driver of the SUV which was 'seen to speed up, to drive on the wrong side of the road into the junction and to deliberately collide with the two men, throwing them up in the air.' Newbury was handed an extended sentence of 10 years and told he must serve at least five years and four months behind bars.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Driver who struck and killed eight-month-old baby in her pram after accidentally hitting the accelerator has prison sentence reduced
A driver who struck and killed an eight-month-old baby in her pram outside a hospital has had her prison sentence reduced at the Court of Appeal. Bridget Curtis, 71, lost control of her automatic BMW 520d car after accidentally pressing down on the accelerator outside Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, on June 21, 2023. The company director was helping her daughter locate her handbag in the backseat when it propelled forward, causing it to mount a kerb and collide with the pushchair of Mabli Cariad Hall. Mabli had just said a final goodbye to her paternal grandmother Betty Hall, who was receiving end-of-life care at the hospital moments before the collision. The youngster, whose first name is Welsh for 'lovable' and middle name means 'love', sustained fatal head injuries and died in hospital in the early hours of June 25. Curtis, who was 69 at the time of the offence, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving last September and was jailed for four years at Swansea Crown Court in January. At the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, her barrister said the sentence was 'manifestly excessive' and should be reduced, stating that the case concerned a 'lapse of concentration'. Three senior judges ruled that Curtis's sentence was 'manifestly excessive' and reduced it to one of three years, while increasing her disqualification from driving from six years to seven-and-a-half years. Mr Justice Butcher, sitting with Lord Justice Bean and Judge Richard Marks KC, said: 'We say at once that this is a truly tragic case. 'We have read the very moving victim personal statements of Mabli's parents, expressing their grief at the death of their beloved baby. 'No one could fail to sympathise with them for the appalling loss that they have sustained.' Curtis, who attended the appeal via video link from HMP Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire and sat in a wheelchair throughout, had no previous convictions at the time of the incident and had held a clean driving licence for more than 50 years. Her sentencing hearing at Swansea Crown Court heard that on the day of the collision, she had driven her daughter to an outpatient appointment at the hospital. When her daughter struggled to find her handbag in the rear of the car, Curtis unlocked the door and turned around to assist her. But as she did so, she pressed down on the accelerator of her car, which had been left running and was not in park mode. The car reached speeds of more than 29mph and travelled 28 metres in around four seconds, mounting the kerb of a grass seating area and causing Mabli to be thrown out of her pushchair. The car only stopped when it collided with a tree, having also caused injuries to Mabli's father Rob Hall. Mabli, the youngest of six siblings, received treatment at the Withybush Hospital, as well as hospitals in Cardiff and Bristol, dying in the arms of her parents on June 25. Her mother, Gwen Hall, told the sentencing hearing that her daughter was 'so bright, so beautiful, so full of love and life'. She said: 'She hadn't crawled yet. She had said "Mama" for the first time only the day before. We had so much planned with her. 'It was nowhere near the time for her to be taken away from us. She was my baby. My eight-month-old baby.' John Dye, for Curtis, told Swansea Crown Court that she was a mother-of-four and grandmother of 10, who was 'absolutely devastated' by the incident. Appearing again for Curtis at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, Mr Dye said: 'This is a tragic case, but the issue really was one of pedal confusion.' He continued: 'Objectively, this is clearly dangerous driving, but in terms of culpability, these four seconds of driving were more akin to, maybe not a momentary lapse, but a lapse of concentration.' Craig Jones, for the Crown Prosecution Service, made no oral submissions to the court. Reducing the sentence, Mr Justice Butcher said: 'True it is that the appellant did not intend to cause any harm, and true also that the mistake was of a short duration, but the driving was well over the threshold of dangerousness.' He continued that Curtis would have known that she had stopped 'in a busy area outside a hospital with potentially very vulnerable pedestrians around', and that four or five seconds 'is far from being a negligible duration'. He added that the court accepted that Curtis's remorse was 'genuine', stating: 'It was inattention and confusion as to which pedal she was pressing that caused this tragedy.'
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Abortion decriminalised in the UK after historic vote
MPs in England and Wales voted 379 to 137 to decriminalise abortion, marking a significant shift in reproductive rights. The reform aims to protect women from investigation, arrest, prosecution, or imprisonment related to their own pregnancies, while maintaining penalties for abusive partners or medical professionals. The vote follows arguments that the UK 's existing abortion law was outdated and increasingly used against vulnerable women, with concerns raised about cases of women being investigated even after miscarriages. Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi highlighted that police had investigated over 100 women for suspected illegal abortions in the past five years, describing such cases as a "travesty". While Labour MP Lizzi Collinge argued the change would protect women from "brutal investigations", Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh and DUP MP Carla Lockhart opposed the reforms, raising concerns about sex-selective abortion and the rights of unborn children.
