Students’ families savage system as their last bid for justice is rejected
THE families of two students killed by a motorist who passed out at the wheel reacted with fury yesterday after their bid for a private prosecution failed.
Outside the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, relatives of Mhairi Convy, 18, and Laura Stewart, 20, could barely contain their emotion as they lambasted the decision, saying they had been ‘locked in a most brutal horror story’ since the crash in December 2010.
The friends were knocked down and killed by William Payne’s Range Rover while they were Christmas shopping in Glasgow city centre – only yards from where the 2014 bin lorry tragedy would take place.
Mr Payne, 55, who had a history of black outs, was originally accused of causing death by dangerous driving while uninsured – but the charges against him were dropped by the Crown Office.
Yesterday, the families saw their last hope of pursuing justice via a private prosecution end in failure.
Outside court, Miss Stewart’s aunt, Cate Cairney, said: ‘The judgment today hasn’t surprised us at all. We’ve been expecting it to be a “No” decision.
‘Since December 17, 2010, when Laura and Mhairi were brutally mown down by William Payne, we’ve all found ourselves locked in a most brutal horror story.
‘As average, normal families, we expected that justice would take care of itself, that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service [COPFS] would do their core job on behalf of the victims and would fight for the truth.
‘Having never been exposed to any criminal proceedings before, we were like lambs to the slaughter, eyes filled with tears, broken-hearted and vulnerable to the machine that is COPFS. As families who had to identify their daughters, seeing them as no people ever should, we trusted the process and we trusted the law – and this law has fatally let our girls down.’
Miss Convy’s father Alan accused prosecutors ‘from the very start’ of doing ‘everything in their power to protect an early incorrect decision of non-prosecution, to protect the process, to protect their own self-importance and, in doing so, rather than admit they got it wrong, protect William Payne’.
He said that, in not prosecuting Mr Payne, they had given ‘a huge green light to other drivers out there who have blackouts to get on the road and to kill people and walk away’.
He added: ‘We firmly believe this includes people like Harry Clarke. How many more innocent daughters, parents, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews have to die before the Crown do the right thing and send out the right message to the public?
‘If this ruling is the law, then the law is wrong in our eyes. It needs changed. We cannot and will not accept this.’
Miss Stewart’s mother Linda fought back tears as she said: ‘Laura and Mhairi were mown down and killed by a man that should never have been on the road. As far as we are concerned, the Crown Office have let us down, have let our girls down and have let William Payne away with murder.’
Miss Convy, from Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, and Miss Stewart, of Lennoxtown, Dunbartonshire, were walking in Glasgow’s North Hanover Street on December 17, 2010, when Mr Payne’s Range Rover mounted the kerb and hit them. A Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) was told the crash happened after he suffered a ‘vasovagal episode’ and temporarily lost consciousness. The FAI found the deaths could have been prevented if Mr Payne had been stopped from driving before the crash. He had suffered six blackouts in the previous three years.
A spokesman for Digby Brown, the law firm acting for the Convy and Stewart families, said: ‘It has taken nearly six years to get to this point. During these long years, the families have had to contend with a series of unnecessary delays and obstacles.
‘They have done so with great difficulty. Simply put, no other family should have to go through what they have had to endure.’
Mr Payne refused to comment last night.