Court throws book at cell killer

A SALES manager killed an 84-year-old man by ploughing into his car at 80km/h while trying to send a Facebook birthday message on her phone.

Wendy Thompson, 53, had been fiddling with her cellphone and its power cable as she drove to a morning meeting.

Rodney Lewis and his wife Marlene, 77, were parked up on the inside lane of the North Circular road in London with their hazard warning lights flashing.

The couple were behind their 21-yearold grandson Samuel’s broken-down Ford Fiesta waiting for a recovery vehicle.

A lorry driver told police he noticed the couple’s red Hyundai stopped on the inside lane. He slowed down to allow Thompson’s car to move into the middle lane to avoid it.

But Thompson made no attempt to change lanes or slow down.

She crashed her VW Passat into the back of the stationary car on February 3 last year.

Lewis, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, was flung forward by the impact and died almost instantly from a broken neck.

His wife suffered a fractured hip and shattered pelvis.

Thompson immediately confessed to a driver who stopped at the scene, saying: “I was trying to put my charger in my phone, I just didn’t see them.”

She later told police she had also been trying to wish her friend happy birthday on Facebook.

The Old Bailey heard she would have had time to avoid the couple if she had been looking at the road and not been distracted by her phone.

Thompson pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

She was sentenced to two years and three months for the first offence and 15 months, to run concurrently, for the second. She was also banned from driving for 10 years.

Prosecutor Oliver Dunkin said: “She went to press send again and was trying to put the charger back into her phone. What we have is a lady foolishly attempting to resend a message and engaging her other hand to try and put it in to charge.”

– Daily Mail