Boy aged 13 who ran over and killed woman with her own car receives two-year sentence
29 November 2023, 12:50 | Updated: 29 November 2023, 13:21
A 13-year-old boy who ran over and killed a 60-year-old grandmother with her own car has been told he will serve two years in custody for causing death by dangerous driving.
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Marcia Grant, 60, suffered catastrophic injuries outside her home in the Greenhill area of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, as she and her husband tried to stop the boy taking their vehicle on April 5.
Sheffield Crown Court heard the boy had never driven before and struggled to control the Honda Civic when he reversed into Mrs Grant, knocking her over and driving over her.
Prosecutors said there was no evidence he had intended to harm Mrs Grant and that his intention was just to drive away.
The boy, who was 12 at the time and cannot be named due to his age, was sentenced to two years in custody at Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday.
He pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at a previous hearing. A charge of murder was dropped by prosecutors when they accepted the plea.
The judge, Mrs Justice May, heard how the boy ran over Mrs Grant despite the frantic attempts of her husband, Delroy, to stop him.
The judge told the boy: "You made a bad choice. You knew that taking her car was wrong. You knew that taking her kitchen knife was wrong."
She said: "The offence you committed was serious but it was not murder."
And she said: "The prosecution have accepted that you did not mean to harm Mrs Grant."
The judge said it was a "very bad accident".
She said Mrs Grant was a committed foster carer, who she said was the "shining lodestar" of her family.
