90-year old man avoids prison sentence after killing two women in car crash outside Withington Hospital
Philip Bull has been handed a two-year suspended prison sentence
Last updated 7th Nov 2017
A 90-year old man - who killed two women in a car crash outside Withington Hospital - has avoided jail.
Philip Bull admitted accidentally pressing the accelerator instead of the brake when he hit Deborah Clifton and Clare Haslam in March.
The pensioner mistakenly got the pedals mixed up in his automatic transmission Ford Focus instead of the brake after he dropped off his infirm wife for a hospital appointment.
He lost control of the vehicle as it reversed and hit a metal bollard before it collided with 44-year old Clare Haslam and 49-year old Deborah Clifton, who were both pronounced dead shortly after the incident at Withington Community Hospital on 7th March.
There were shouts of anger from Clare and Deborah's families as the verdict was read out. Speaking after sentencing outside court, Deborah's sister Julie says they don't have justice:
Bull pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and was said to be hugely remorseful''.
His barrister, Richard Vardon, had argued the circumstances of the tragic case were exceptional'' and could lead the judge to impose a suspended sentence.
For more than a decade the defendant had been the carer for his wife of 65 years, 87-year old Audrey, who had a number of health problems including Alzheimer's disease, he said.
He said Mrs Bull could not be cared for at home without the defendant and she would have to be rehoused.
Imposing a two-year jail term, suspended for the same period, Judge Martin Walsh told the defendant: After careful and considered reflection, I am satisfied that it is in the interests of justice for the sentence of imprisonment to be suspended, recognising as I do that this may be difficult to accept by some, if not all, of the family and friends of the deceased.
In the light of their personal grief, such feelings may be understandable.
This was, however, a piece of driving that occurred over a very short period of time.
You made a genuine but catastrophic mistake.
The consequences were unforeseen and completely unintended.
I ask myself what would an immediate sentence of imprisonment achieve and whether immediate immediate imprisonment would be in the public interest?
It will not serve as a deterrent to you or to others.
It will not put right the harm that has been done.
Whilst it would, of course, be a harsh punishment, the fact is that you will live for the rest of your life in the knowledge that your unintended actions on this occasion resulted in the deaths of two people.
That is your burden to bear.'