Toddler Death Driver Jailed For Seven Years

A woman driver has been jailed for seven years for crushing a toddler under the wheels of her car.

Katie Gutierrez-Perez, 40, admitted causing the death by dangerous driving of fifteen-month-old Finlay Woods in Chingford, east London, in September.

She was drunk as she ploughed her powerful 4x4 vehicle off Cavendish Road, killing the young child, who was in a pushchair at a school's gates. Finlay had been with his mother and grandmother when the car mounted the kerb and hit them.

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard how, moments before the crash, a car tax inspector had tried to stop her driving her vehicle. The mother-of-two had been on her way to hospital following a failed suicide attempt.

Judge Timothy King, sentencing the former restaurateur, said: "Clearly, the offence is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified.

"As far as the family are concerned, no sentence I impose could be too long, and I have to balance the feelings of the family, the crime and my duty to the public in administrating justice."

The judge read out a statement from Tina Woods, the boy's mother, which said: "I have constant reminders of Finlay's short life - his toys, clothes and cot, which is still made up from the morning on 18th September.

"It is difficult to come to terms with the loss of such a young life."

(JM/KMcA)