Folkestone Trawlers managing director avoids jail after causing the death of woman in fatal collision
A company boss who struck and killed a pensioner with his van as he drove home to have lunch has avoided jail. The family of Genevieve Sutton were in court to see 60-year-old Jesse Milton - the managing director of Folkestone Trawlers - sentenced over the fatal crash near the town's harbour last July.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) presented the case as having a higher level of culpability, but the bench considered otherwise - sparing the businessman an immediate prison term. Milton knocked down Mrs Sutton as she crossed the road near the Beach Street junction with Harbour Street at about 12.05pm on July 4, 2024.
She was rushed to hospital following the collision, but doctors were unable to treat a catastrophic bleed to her brain, and she died in the early hours of the following day. Milton admitted causing her death by careless driving[1] when he appeared in court in July this year. Magistrates were told he "simply did a right turn" and that it was a "momentary lapse in concentration" that led to him hitting Mrs Sutton.
His defence advocate also said other vehicles on the road had prevented Milton from seeing Mrs Sutton and that he had waited for a car to go across the junction before he pulled out.
At the time, sentencing was adjourned so probation reports could be carried out on him, and he returned to Folkestone Magistrates' Court on Monday to learn his fate. The court heard Milton, of Church Hougham, Dover, had just left work in his Ford Transit van to pop home for lunch when he reached the Beach Street junction. He waited for a car to pass before pulling out onto Harbour Street and turning right, but he collided with Mrs Sutton as she crossed the road closely behind two other pedestrians.
Mrs Sutton, who was in her 70s, was carried momentarily on the bonnet before being thrown to the ground, striking her head with considerable force.
Milton jumped out of his vehicle to help her, along with others who had witnessed and heard the incident. When police arrived at the scene, Milton told officers he had looked both ways before pulling out, adding: "She stepped out right in front of me." Mrs Sutton was rushed to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, where tests showed she had suffered a massive brain haemorrhage.
Specialist neurosurgeons from King's College Hospital in London reviewed the scans and deemed the bleed too "extensive" to be operated on, so Mrs Sutton was given palliative care until her death in the early hours of July 5, last year.
It was the Crown's case that Milton had carried out an unsafe manoeuvre. Police investigators examined the scene of the crash and found that Milton's view of Mrs Sutton and the other pedestrians would likely have been obscured by the passing car for only one or two seconds. The court heard Milton would have seen Mrs Sutton just before the collision, as he had applied his brakes, but concluded that he had made insufficient observations before pulling out of the junction.
Tests showed he was not over the limit for alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash, and had not been using either of the two mobile phones in his van.
He was said to be full of extreme remorse over the pensioner's death.
Footage of the collision was shown in court at Monday's hearing, where magistrates told Mrs Sutton's family that "they recognised their grief and that they had sympathy for their loss". The chairman of the bench said that after considering all of the evidence, they felt the offence fell within their sentencing guidelines at a culpability level of Category C - lower than the Category B presented by the CPS. It still passed the custody threshold, so Milton could have been jailed, but magistrates decided to suspend a six-month prison term for 18 months.
He was also given a 12-month driving ban, which started on an interim basis on July 22 when he entered his guilty plea.
The chairman of the bench told Milton: "We considered your clean record, your previous good character and the remorse you carry, so the term may be suspended.
"It is a very serious offence and has caused much grief to Mrs Sutton's family, but with all the factors [we've heard], we believe this is the right decision."
References
- ^ admitted causing her death by careless driving (kentonline.co.uk)