Hit-and-run driver inhaled laughing gas moments before killing pensioner

Telegraph

3 days ago

A hit-and-run driver inhaled laughing gas from a balloon moments before running over and killing an elderly cyclist.
Cian Byrne, 20, hit Graham Slinn, 81, at a pedestrian crossing near Todwick, South Yorkshire.
He ignored a red light and was well over the 50mph limit when he hit his victim.
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.
On Monday, he was sentenced to 11 years and six months in a young offenders institution, with an extended licence period of five years. He was banned from driving for 17 years and eight months.
Father-of-two Byrne, of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, had admitted causing death by dangerous driving and other offences at a previous hearing.
An earlier hearing was told Mr Slinn had dismounted and was walking across the A57 when he was hit by a Volkswagen Golf driven by Byrne.
The defendant sped off with two passengers after the collision on April 4, with dashcam footage showing his tyres smoking as he appeared to be trying to control the vehicle.
A montage of footage shown in court showed him inhaling nitrous oxide gas from a yellow balloon several times before and after the collision with Mr Slinn.
One of these was just moments after he hit the former builder, who helped care for adults with learning disabilities after he retired and was weeks away from celebrating his 60th wedding anniversary with his wife Jaqueline.
Sentencing Byrne, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC said inhaling nitrous oxide was 'an exceptionally dangerous act while driving'.
He said Byrne 'endured a dreadful upbringing' and 'had known very few boundaries' in his life.
He told him: 'You are a dangerous offender and the public must be protected from your evident dangerous and ingrained criminal behaviour.'
The court heard Byrne had convictions for 27 offences including dangerous driving, despite having no licence.
Rebecca Stephens, defending, told the court her client drove off because he believed he had only hit another vehicle with his wing mirror.
Mrs Slinn had said she and her husband met through a love of cycling. He was also a keen singer who would perform in pubs and clubs in Sheffield.
Cycling was a lifelong passion
After the sentencing, Mr Slinn's daughter Nicola and son Victor described their father as 'kind to his core'.
They said: 'On the afternoon of April 4, our dad set out on his bike.
'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 pedestrian 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.
They added: 'To lose any loved one is a shock. But to lose someone so vibrant, so active and to know their death was 100 per cent avoidable is doubly cruel.'