Driver jailed for killing woman who had just taken an A-level exam
A MOTORIST who knocked down and killed an 18-year-old woman after spending the afternoon drinking in a North Yorkshire market town’s pub has been jailed for four and a half years.
Kieran McGowan drank five pints in the pub in Skipton before his Ford Fiesta ploughed into Kate Whalley as she walked home from an A-level exam.
She suffered fatal injuries in the collision on the A660 Leeds Road at Pool-in-Wharfedale, near Leeds, on June 22 last year.
McGowan and his passenger, Oliver Hurst, lied to police about the amount of alcohol they had drunk. But officers were able to find closed-circuit television footage of the pair in the Castle Inn in Skipton, which showed McGowan had drunk five pints of lager.
Hurst, his boss at a stone masonry firm, was caught on camera drinking a pint of lager and four gin and tonics.
McGowan, 23, of Knox Way, Harrogate, was jailed for four and a half years yesterday after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.
Hurst, 32, of Beamsley View, Ilkley, was locked up for seven months after pleading guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Kate’s father Michael read a victim impact statement at Leeds Crown Court. McGowan sat in the dock and stared at the floor as Mr Whalley spoke.
Mr Whalley said: “It is a crying shame that he did not think of the consequences of his lunatic driving behaviour on June 22, 2017, resulting in him hitting our daughter, causing her skull to be shattered on the road.
“There is no defence for his actions. As a father I have lost my daughter. Not being able to celebrate her graduation, not being able to have the pride to walk her down the aisle and not being able to share our love.”
He added that McGowan had “rubbed salt in the wounds” by telling lies after his daughter’s death.
Her mother, Diane Jordan, said: “Kate was a beautiful daughter. She was vibrant and very full of life. She was a big part of me and I loved her very much.
“She was a very special and confident young lady whose future looked bright and exciting,”
Michael Smith, prosecuting, said Miss Whalley was in her final year at Harrogate Grammar School and was hoping to go to Newcastle University to study psychology.
The fatal crash occurred as she walked along Otley Road on her way home from an A-level exam.
The prosecutor said McGowan “catastrophically lost control” of the vehicle at a bend. Witnesses estimated that McGowan had been driving at 60mph to 80mph shortly before the crash, which happened in a 40mph zone.
Mr Smith said McGowan failed a roadside breath test, but he was under the drink-drive limit when he was tested again at a police station.
The prosecutor said investigators were able to do a “back-calculation” based on the amount he had drank in the pub to assess if he was over the limit at the time of the crash.
Mr Smith said: “It is very likely that the defendant would have been over the drink-drive limit.”