The dad from Coventry was jailed after admitting causing death by dangerous driving
A father whose baby daughter was tragically killed when he crashed a car after taking his hands off the wheel to turn round to her has been jailed.
Little Amelie Houanda had suffered catastrophic head injuries when the car left the road and a section of the fence it crashed into came through the windscreen and hit her.
Her father Armel Houanda pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to causing 20-month-old Amelie’s death by dangerous driving on the B4114 Smockington Lane at Wolvey in June last year.
Houanda, 39, of Victoria Street, Hillfields, Coventry, who also admitted taking his partner’s hired Audi Q3 Sport without consent and driving with no insurance or full licence, was jailed for two years and eight months.
Jailing Houanda, and banning him from driving for nine years and four months, Judge Potter told him: “Even by the standards of such cases, this is a particularly tragic case.
“The sad fact is that there is nothing I can do by way of sentence which will reflect the loss of your daughter to her mother or to you.
“The journey you took was not a short one, and the tragic fact is that on your way back you removed both hands from the wheel and turned round to deal with an issue with your daughter.
“You do not appear to have made any attempt to stop the vehicle or to have slowed down. Instead you looked backwards for a matter of seconds, and in doing so lost control and, having left the carriageway, collided with a fence.
“I am quite prepared to accept you will never forget June 22 last year and your responsibility for what happened.
“You express real remorse to the author of the pre-sentence report, in which it is clear your concerns were not for your immediate future, but for the effect on Miss Tomkinson.”
But he added that the sentence was not one that could be suspended.
Since when did "banning" anyone stop them from driving?
