Driver who ploughed into girl, 5, riding scooter on pavement before shamelessly speeding off released EARLY from jail
A MAN who mowed down a young girl has been released after just two and a half months.
Kurtis Dwyer, 35, crashed into five-year-old Casey while she was riding her scooter home from school.
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He mounted the pavement while driving at a high speed, colliding with the five-year-old as she rode her scooter.
The horrific incident occurred in Grangetown, Cardiff, in March 2024, leaving the girl with ongoing physical and mental injuries.
The dangerous driver was sentenced to 14 months after pleading guilty.
During a trial which concluded on March 3 2025, Judge Simon Mills said that half of the sentence would be served behind bars, and the other half on licence.
In reality, Kurtis was released early, serving just two and a half months in prison.
Casey's mother, Rachel Bancroft told WalesOnline: 'It's hard to get my head around that with all the fight, stress, frustration and sleepless nights with the police and chasing evidence etc that it's taken nearly a year battling to get justice.
"Then we finally get justice for him to do seven months in custody and he only does two and a half months.
'It has made me so angry. What has this world come to? I'm sure if the shoe was on the other foot and it was his child he'd be really disappointed as well.
'My little girl is still really suffering and I've now had to tell her that the bad man who hit her is out of jail.
"It's taken me a year of fighting for justice for him to serve less than three months in jail. It's a disgrace.'
The Ministry of Justice announced on Monday May 2 that Kurtis had been released into home detention curfew.
This was possible because of the early release scheme which is an attempt to solve the country's prison overcrowding issue.
It enables prisoners to be released from custody after serving just 40% of their sentence, rather than the prior 50% requirement.
The scheme is also intended to help rehabilitate offenders through reintroducing them into community life earlier.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told Wales Online that released offenders still face "strict licence conditions", including being tagged.
They added: "Those who break the rules can be returned to prison."
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In order to be eligible for home detention curfew, offenders must have been risk-assessed, and have six months or less left before their conditional release date.
Kurtis had 15 previous convictions for 22 offences.
He was also sent back to court during his time in custody after failing to provide a specimen when police requested.
He was photographed laughing and taking pictures outside the Cardiff Crown Court before his sentencing.
CCTV footage of the incident showed Kurtis driving recklessly before crashing into the child - he then drove away "in complete cowardice" according to the judge.
He then later phoned the girl's father to admit to the crime, as well as telling the probation officer that he had seen the child before driving off.
It comes a week after Britain's most senior police officer criticised ministers failure to consider the impact early release of prisoners might have on police forces.
Sir Mark Rowley argued that the scheme would create even more work for police, as he is concerned some released prisoners would go on to commit more offences.
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