Our daughter, 17, died in horror crash & the drunk driver enjoyed a holiday as we waited for justice – we felt forgotten
THE PARENTS of a teen killed by a drunk driver have told how their daughter’s killer enjoyed a holiday while they waited for justice.
Paul and Nicky Johnson’s 17-year-old daughter Phoebe was killed when a car being driven by her friend, Melissa Keilloh, crashed on the A514 near Derby in October 2021.
Keilloh, 20, was jailed for three years and disqualified from driving for six-and-a-half years on Tuesday after admitting to causing death by careless driving while over the alcohol limit.
Her sentencing took place almost three months later than originally planned, and Mr and Mrs Johnson claimed they were never contacted by a court or victim support service about the case, a situation they described as a “shambles”.
Delays to sentencing meant the couple had to spend a second Christmas with the verdict hanging over them, after Keilloh, of Hartshorne, first appeared in Crown Court on October 27.
Throughout the case, Mrs Johnson was able to see photos of Keilloh smiling, going on holiday and enjoying afternoon tea on social media, which only worsened her grief as she came to terms with her loss.
The hearing was then pushed back without explanation for a third time, to Tuesday, and was changed from a plea and sentencing hearing to a plea hearing only.
This change meant the couple told other relatives who lived elsewhere – including Phoebe’s half-sisters – not to travel, and only when they were on the way to Derby were they informed by their police liaison officer that the sentencing would take place as well, which left Mrs Johnson feeling “numb”.
She said: “You need to mentally prepare yourself, and we had prepared ourselves for plea only – we expected to be there for half an hour and that was it.
“We didn’t have our victim statements or anything, we felt that we weren’t important, that it was being done with no regard for us.
“I was numb, but to be honest, I was not at all surprised as it has been a shambles from the off and it just continued.”
Mr Johnson, 63, added: “The defendant would have been informed, and her family, as she had a bag with her.
“They were told, so why weren’t we?”
He added: “It makes us feel forgotten, an afterthought and like Phoebe was forgotten.
“I said at the beginning that I didn’t want this to be diluted down, for Phoebe to be forgotten, and that’s how we felt; that the seriousness of it had been diluted down, and that she had been forgotten, and that she didn’t matter, the case didn’t matter, none of it mattered.”
The result of the back-calculation requested by the defence barrister in October was not disclosed to the prosecutor or mentioned in court.
In Mr Johnsons victim impact statement – in which he said his “hatred” of Keilloh was one of the only things keeping him alive – he said the justice system had become a “failed regime”, but he was prevented from saying the latter remark by the judge.
The couple were also left aggrieved when the judge looked through the statement prior to it being read out and told the packed courtroom that he was “not even that impressed by it”.
The experience has left them with no faith in the justice system, but they, and the large group of Phoebe’s friends – many of whom attended court, also now hope to move on with the help of counselling.
The Ministry of Justice has been approached for comment.