Hit-and-run driver who killed pensioner while high on laughing gas jailed

ITV News

21-07-2025

An unqualified driver who was filmed inhaling laughing gas at the wheel when he killed an elderly cyclist before fleeing the scene has been jailed.
Cain Byrne, 20, ignored a red light and was well over the 50mph limit when he hit 81-year-old Graham Slinn on the A57 in Todwick near Rotherham on 4 April.
Mr Slinn, who had been pushing his bike across a pedestrian crossing, was pronounced dead at the scene after Byrne drove off in his VW Golf.
Sheffield Crown Court heard Byrne, who has never held a driving licence, made no attempt to stop at the crossing and could have been travelling at up to 80mph.
The father-of-two, from Chesterfield, had admitted causing death by dangerous driving at a previous hearing.
He was sentenced to 11 years and six months' detention in a young offenders institution, with an extended licence period of five years, and was banned from driving for 17 years and eight months.
Judge Jeremy Richardson KC told the defendant: 'You are a dangerous offender and the public must be protected from your evident dangerous and ingrained criminal behaviour.'
Footage shown in court showed Byrne inhaling nitrous oxide gas from a yellow balloon while driving, both before and after the collision with Mr Slinn.
The court heard the defendant sped off with two passengers after the crash, with dashcam footage showing his tyres smoking as he appeared to try to control the vehicle.
Mr Slinn helped to care for adults with learning disabilities after he retired and was weeks away from celebrating his 60th wedding anniversary with his wife Jaqueline.
Judge Richardson said inhaling nitrous oxide was 'an exceptionally dangerous act while driving'.
He said Mr Slinn was 'crossing the road entirely lawfully, in accordance with the green light for him', and 'died of injuries inflicted by your truly appalling driving'.
The judge said Byrne 'endured a dreadful upbringing' and 'had known very few boundaries' in his life.
Byrne was due to be sentenced last month but, after hearing about his 'astonishing and appalling' driving record, Judge Richardson said he wanted a report prepared by probation officers.
The court heard Byrne had a range of convictions for 27 offences, including dangerous driving, despite having no driving licence.
Rebecca Stephens, mitigating, told the court her client drove off because he believed he had only hit another vehicle with his wing mirror.
In a statement read to the judge at an earlier hearing, Mrs Slinn said she and her husband met through a love of cycling and he rode his bike several times a week.
He was also a keen singer who would perform in pubs and clubs in Sheffield.
Mrs Slinn said: 'Sixty years of marriage, almost, wiped out by the defendant.'
After the sentencing, Mr Slinn's daughter Nicola, and son Victor, described their father as 'kind to his core' and said his death was '100% avoidable'.
'On the afternoon of 4 April, our dad set out on his bike — something he had loved since his youth, when he used to race.
'Cycling was a lifelong passion and a shared family activity. He always took safety incredibly seriously and had planned his route to stick to quiet lanes and cycle paths.
'Despite taking every possible precaution to stay safe — dismounting at the end of the cycle path, waiting for the lights to change to green for pedestrians, and wheeling his bike across the pedestrian crossing — on the day he died, he was hit at speed by a car driven by someone who just kept going, as if our dad wasn't even there, as if he was nothing.
'But he was there. He was everything to us. He was our dad, our mum's husband of 60 years, a granddad to two teenage girls, and a friend to so many.'
In a statement released through Thompsons Solicitors, the family said Mr Slinn's death had left a profound silence at the heart of their home.
The family added: 'To lose any loved one is a shock. But to lose someone so vibrant, so active, and to know their death was 100% avoidable is doubly cruel.'