12 years and a lifetime driving ban for the hit and run heroin addict who killed Sophie, 11
A HEROIN addict was jailed for 12 years and three months yesterday after he admitted killing an 11-year- old girl in a hit and run incident while on bail.
Christopher Hannah, 33, was also banned from driving for life.
At the High Court in Livingston, Judge Lord Bannatyne told f ather- of- three Hannah that Sophie Brannan’s family would never get over her death.
A ten-year- old friend of Sophie and Joseph Lloyd, 36, were also badly injured when Hannah lost control of his hired Vauxhall Astra and mounted t he pavement.
Witnesses claimed Hannah – who had 14 previous convictions – was ‘under the influence of some substance’ at the time of the accident in Maryhill, Glasgow, on November 14 last year. His victims were thrown onto the bonnet, windscreen and roof of the vehicle before falling to the ground.
Jailing Hannah, Lord Bannatyne called the crash a ‘dreadful tragedy.’
He said: ‘In terms of your driving, it can be summed up in words that you used and are in the Crown narrative: you had driven “like a mad man”.
‘The consequences of your conduct that night have been of the most significant kind. A young girl, with her whole life ahead of her, has been deprived of her life.
‘Her family has suffered terrible pain at
‘In your own words, you drove like a mad man’
the loss of their child. They have suffered an incalculable loss by the death of their child. They will suffer for the rest of their lives. They will never be reconciled with their loss. Their lives have been shattered.
‘Beyond that, your actions have had very serious effects on the lives of the two people who were seriously injured. In particular, the young child has had considerable ongoing emotional difficulties.’
Following the crash in Sandbank Street, witnesses saw Hannah, the son of a bankrupt businessman, ‘drive erratically’ into nearby Maryhill Road.
He then crashed into a taxi, whose driver followed Hannah, who eventually stopped a short distance away before running off. He later admitted he had ‘driven like a mad man’ and thought he had hit a wheelie bin.
Sophie was taken to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill, where she was found to have swelling to her brain, several fractures and broken bones.
She remained in intensive care overnight but was pronounced dead on the morning of November 15.
Her t en- year- old friend suffered a serious leg break, which will require long-term physiotherapy.
Mr Lloyd suffered a number of f ractures and required surgery. He is likely to suffer ‘long-term restriction’ of movement in his right shoulder.
Hannah told police in a phone call on the day of the crash: ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do it. It was a total accident. I lost control of the car and I panicked.’
As well as culpable homicide, Hannah also pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, attempting to defeat the ends of justice and possessing heroin.
It emerged that his 14 previous convictions included possessing an offensive weapon.
Hannah, who was out on bail at the time of the crash, stayed on the run for two days after Sophie’s death, despite promising his partner he would hand himself in.
Police had to search for him and when they caught up with him, he again tried to run away. When finally arrested, he had heroin inside his boxer shorts.
Sophie’s family and friends were in court yesterday – many of them wearing pink T-shirts bearing the words ‘Soph’ and ‘Justice’. None of them would comment on the sentence.
Sophie’s mother Marie, who had been in poor health, died five weeks after the tragedy, aged only 33.
At the time of Sophie’s death, her cousin John McGhee, 20, said: ‘No words can describe what our f amily i s going through. Nobody will know what it’s like until they’ve lost somebody that age.’
Following Hannah’s convict i on i n March, Detective Inspector Colin Hailstones said: ‘This was an appallingly tragic case.
‘Police officers worked tirelessly to piece together the events of that fateful night and I must thank the many members of the local community and those injured who helped to provide information about the incident.’