Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Mum is stunned by killer driver’s cheek
Man jailed for daughter’s death fails in licence bid
An Airdrie woman has slammed a failed attempt by the hit- and- run driver who killed her teenage daughter to get his licence back early.
Jane Paterson’s beloved daughter Elaine was just 18 when she was mown down by Felix McKeown in November 2005 on Dykehead Road, Plains.
McKeown, who had no licence or insurance at the time of the horror smash, callously raced off from the scene in a BMW “like a bat out of hell”, leaving Elaine dying in the road.
The killer then tried to save his own skin by abandoning his highperformance car and reporting it stolen to police.
In an attempt to perfect his alibi, McKeown phoned a friend to collect him and then nonchalantly visited car showrooms as if nothing had happened.
He was jailed for eight years and three months in 2007 and banned from the road for 15 years. But he is now out of jail and in work.
McKeown, who lives in Coatbridge, launched a legal bid to get his licence back – saying he felt “awkward” in his job because he can’t drive.
But at the High Court in Edinburgh last week, judge Lord Beckett threw out the case.
He told McKeown: “I’m told you’re not going to lose your job from being unable to drive.
“It makes you feel awkward and may hold you back from promotion.
“I don’t find that a powerful argument.”
Car fanatic McKeown’s request to have his licence back was all the more outrageous as he had been caught breaching his driving ban by getting behind the wheel of a Porsche while he was on prison leave just three years after he was jailed.
He had been on home leave from cushy Castle Huntly open prison near Dundee in October 2010 when he was caught at the wheel of the powerful vehicle.
He was sentenced to an extra year in jail.
The tragic teenager’s mum Jane, 66, told the Advertiser: “I’m pleased he’s not getting his licence back and that the judge saw sense.
“It was an arrogant thing to try in the first place.
“Finding it ‘awkward’ not having a licence is not a good excuse.
“I think he would be a danger to other people while driving.
“There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about Elaine and everything she’s missed out on. I could have had grandkids by now.”