Dad runs over heavily pregnant fiancee outside their own baby shower
A dad-to-be accidentally ran over and killed his pregnant fiancee outside their baby shower just three weeks before the child was due, Mirror UK reports.
According to the report, Daniel Dutfield, 24, who passed his driving test a year before the crash, was nearly three times over the limit when he stormed out of the barbecue party in honour of his baby shower, upset at the low turnout. He got behind the wheel of his souped up turbocharged 1.8l Ford Focus which had been lowered and a ‘racing style’ clutch fitted before speeding off, accelerating up to 60 miles an hour around the estate in Morden, Surrey.
As Ms Jessica Fenner came out to see what was happening, Dutfield lost control around a corner and ploughed into her. Both the unborn baby girl and 22-year-old Jessica Fenner died in the tragic incident. The baby girl was dead on arrival at hospital and Ms Fenner died the next day.
Dutfield, an apprentice engineer, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at Croydon Crown Court and was jailed for four and a half years. He was also ordered to pay a £120 surcharge and banned from driving for seven years.
As Dutfield wept, the court was told that the pair, who had been going out for six years, were ‘joined at the hip.’
Passing sentence, the Recorder of Croydon Judge Warwick McKinnon said: “This is a totally tragic case. Everyone is agreed that this was a freak accident with totally, dreadfully, tragic consequences. However you drove drunkenly, aggressively, and at speed, in a residential area. Children could have quite easily been present. It’s a tragic case, you killed the one you love.”
Referring to statement from mum Julie Fenner which was not read out, he said she spoke “movingly” about the “pain, grief, all-encompassing anguish of losing a daughter, in such tragic, senseless circumstances.”
He added: “This was a wholly avoidable and premature death but no sentence I can pass today, whatever its length can restore the human life that has been so senselessly lost.”
Avirup Chaudhuri, in mitigation, said: “The word tragedy is perhaps over-used these days, but nobody can deny the term is appropriate to this case.”
The court told Dutfield was suffering from depression and had been deemed a suicide risk in custody, though it was also revealed that he had helped prevent the suicides of two other inmates while on remand. He had no previous convictions, and no points on his driving licence.
Source: mirror.co.uk