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Snowdonia campsite death: Driver who killed woman by hitting tent jailed | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
A man who killed a woman after driving while drunk around a campsite has been jailed for eight years and four months. | |
Jake Waterhouse, 27, of Partington, Greater Manchester, had been drinking whiskey before he got behind the wheel of his friend's car on 19 August. | |
He drove over a tent where Anna Roselyn Evans, 46, and her husband were sleeping at the Rhyd Y Galen site in Snowdonia, trapping her under the car. | |
Waterhouse admitted causing death by dangerous driving at Mold Crown Court. | |
It took five people to lift the car off Mrs Evans. | |
She was taken to hospital, but later died. | |
The court heard how Waterhouse and a friend had travelled to Wales on a fishing trip. | |
Waterhouse only had a provisional licence and had not passed his test. | |
The court heard that earlier in the day Waterhouse's friend suggested he learn to drive on private land, and there would not be many people on the campsite. | |
In the early hours, while his friend was in the tent, Waterhouse drove the car around the campsite. | |
Campers described hearing "revving as if a vehicle was stuck in mud" and one person shouted: "He's running over the tents". | |
He hit one tent, injuring its occupants. He then continued to drive, before the car ploughed into the Evans's tent. | |
Mrs Evans' husband Huw described hearing an "almighty bang". | |
The court heard the "tent was clearly destroyed, and he couldn't find his wife Anna". | |
He then saw her legs sticking out from underneath a car. | |
Waterhouse ran from the scene and sent a text to his partner to say he was on the run. He also called his mother, who told him to "do the right thing". | |
Shortly after, he handed himself in to police. | |
A roadside breath test showed him to be over the limit. | |
However, in custody he refused to give further specimens, which judge Rhys Rowlands said was probably to hide how drunk he was. | |
The judge said courts dealt all too often with cases where drunk people get behind the wheel of a car. | |
However, he told the court "the circumstances of this case are particularly poignant. They are harrowing." | |
He said Waterhouse showed "complete disregard for the safety of others". | |
Mrs Evans had "lost her life in front of her husband in quite the most horrific way," the judge said. | |
He said the combination of Waterhouse's drunken state and his lack of driving experience was "pretty much an accident waiting to happen". | |
"It completely understates matters to say it was the height of drunken stupidity on your part," he added. |