Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Death crash driver ‘never apologised’ say victim’s family
The family of an 18-year-old girl who died when her boyfriend crashed his car into a tree had the first opportunity on Tuesday to question him about the tragedy.
It happened at the inquest into the death of Emily Laker, 18, from Sturry, who was a frontseat passenger in a Renault Clio driven by Mentesh Mouherrem.
Mr Mouherrem, also known as Da Silva, gave “no comment” responses to police investigating the crash which happened in Canterbury last August.
He subsequently admitted causing her death by careless driving and was given a suspended prison sentence at Maidstone Crown Court in March.
But he did reply this week when asked by a coroner about the crash, saying: “I can’t remember much of it. I remember picking Emily up from the pub but I don’t remember the journey.”
He said he could only recall someone flashing a light in his eyes after the crash and was later heavily sedated.
The inquest heard collision investigators found traces of cannabis and ecstasy in blood samples taken while he was recovering in hospital.
Assistant coroner James Dillon said the inquest was a factfinding and not fault-finding hearing and had advised Mr Mouherrem that he was not obliged to answer questions that would incriminate him.
Mr Mouherrem, who used to live in Lower Road, Faversham, and had only passed his driving test eight weeks before the crash, admitted taking the drugs at a birthday party two days earlier.
Asked by the coroner whether it would have affected his driving on the night of the crash, he replied, “no”.
He was also questioned about his drug-taking by Emily’s stepmother Lisa Smart from Tankerton who suggested he had been smoking cannabis at a party early in the evening of the crash, which he denied.
She also said he should have checked whether Emily had put her seatbelt on when she got into his car after he picked her up from work at a pub.
He said: “It was partly my responsibility. I’m not sure if she was wearing a seat belt. You can’t force someone to.”
Crash investigators said they believed Mr Mouherrem had lost control of his car as he went around a right-hand bend coming down Shalloak Road.
PC Andrew Waghorn told the coroner said the evidence pointed to the driver over-correcting a skid and spinning the car off the road, down a bank and into a tree.
But he did not believe the Clio was travelling faster than the 60mph speed limit.
Miss Laker – a former Canterbury College student of River View, Sturry, who worked at the Tyler’s Kiln pub – was killed instantly from multiple injuries.
A couple who were driving home to Herne Bay along Shalloak Road told the inquest how they nearly collided with Mr Mouherrem’s Clio as he came round the bend.
Ricky and Janet Benjamin both described the car’s engine sounding like it was racing and the vehicle going “extremely fast”.
Mr Benjamin, who was driving a Seat, said: “It looked it was out of control and I thought ‘Christ, it’s going to hit me’.”
He said the Clio narrowly missed them and then he heard a loud thud.
“I stopped, put my hazards on and ran back down the hill where I saw the car down a bank and called the emergency services.”
Travelling in the back of the Clio was Casey Dixon, a friend of Mr Mouherrem who said they were on their way back to a party in Faversham.
He said he was drinking beer and looking down at his phone and not paying much attention to the road.
He said: “He wasn’t driving like an idiot and all over the place. Then I heard Emily shout and we went down and everyone was in a bad way.”
Mr Dixon was unhurt and managed to get himself out of the car.
Assistant coroner Mr Dillion recorded that Miss Laker’s death had been due to a road traffic collision.
After the hearing, Emily’s stepmother Lisa Smart said: “Yet again, he didn’t appear to show any remorse and has never apologised to the family. I was also shocked to find out that he had only passed his test eight weeks before the crash.
“It was distressing to sit through some of the evidence, particularly the post mortem report, but we needed to know that Emily didn’t suffer.”