My daughter, 17, was killed by a stupid drug-driver – his jail sentence is an insult to our family
A HEARTBROKEN mum has blasted a driver’s sentence as an “insult” after he killed her 17-year-old daughter while high on drugs.
Keilan Roberts, 22, had taken ketamine and hippy crack, and downed alcohol before getting behind the wheel of his car and killing Chloe Hayman, 17.
Roberts had only met passenger Chloe in a nightclub for the first ever time hours before smashing into cattle grid railings on a mountain road.
He was jailed for just three years and nine months – leaving Chloe’s family stunned by the sentence.
Chloe’s mum Danielle O’Halloran has slammed the jail term as an “insult” after losing her “kind, loving, beautiful” daughter.
She said: “The sentencing feels like an insult to us as a family. Chloe’s life was taken at the hands of someone who made a stupid decision to drive when they were in no fit state to do so.
“No family should ever have to experience what we have experienced and the heartache and sadness we feel as we navigate our way through life since the loss of Chloe.
“The loss of our Chloe will hopefully spread the message to the younger generations of today to prevent another stupid decision to drive under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and to prevent another family losing an innocent life.”
Prosecutor Jason Howells said Chloe was fatally injured when the railings pierced the windscreen of his Skoda Octavia.
Cardiff Crown Court heard a neighbour rushed to the scene after hearing a “loud bang” at 5.50am in Fochriw, Caerphilly, South Wales.
Mr Howells said: “He could see a male sitting in the driver’s seat drinking a bottle of lager and a female slumped over on the passenger side.”
Roberts told the witness: “I wasn’t drinking at the time of the crash. I just opened a few bottles to take the edge off. I’ve just killed someone.”
Roberts met Chloe for the first ever time at the Platform 11 nightclub in Pontypridd, South Wales, after inhaling nitrous oxide – and arranged for a friend to pick him up at 4am.
The court heard he spoke to her after she was seen “crying” when she was unable to find a lift home.
Chloe and Roberts got into his friend’s car before they pulled over so the defendant could get into his own vehicle.
Mr Howells said Roberts’ worried friend said he “shouldn’t be driving as he was drunk” before he followed him downhill and saw him “skidding.”
Emergency services rushed to the scene to find a “large hole in the passenger side of the windscreen” with Chloe unresponsive.
The court heard Roberts was arrested before he told officers: “I don’t know if it will make any difference but I’m extremely sorry for the girl’s family” as he walked to the cells.
Police collision investigators found the car would have failed an MOT due to worn out rear tyres but there were no mechanical faults.
A post mortem examination revealed Chloe died of injury to the chest including cardiac avulsion.
In a victim impact statement, mum Danielle described her daughter as “cheeky, mischievious and a soul who touched everyone who knew her.”
She told Roberts: “I forgive you. I just want you to learn that these things in life that you do, drinking and taking drugs, it’s not a way of life. There are other things out there.
“Go to the beach and enjoy your friends. You won’t find peace and happiness from all those things you took that night.”
Stepmum Alix Hayman added: “I ask you why? Why did you decide to get behind the wheel of that car when you knew what you had taken and you were not fit to drive.”
Roberts pleaded guilty to four charges of causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed limit for alcohol and drugs.
The court heard he had 118mg of benzoylecgonine (or cocaine), 34mg ketamine and 75mg of MDMA per 100ml of blood in his system.
Judge David Wynn Morgan said Roberts had consumed bottles of Peroni after the crash in an “attempt to frustrate the breathalyser test.”
He said: “Chloe Hayman was no statistic. She was a real, living person who would be alive today had you not taken the selfish, criminally foolish and intoxicated decision to put her in your car and to driver it.”
Roberts, of Rhymney, Caerphilly, was jailed for three years and nine months and disqualified from driving for ten years.
Chloe left behind her mother Danielle and father Gavin Hayman and three younger brothers Jac, 13, Joshua, eight, and Alfie, six following the crash in July last year.