From Dailymail · · 3m
A Snapchat video, a stone wall, and a sentence that grew
She filmed her boyfriend leaning out of the window at 35mph. Two years on, the Court of Appeal decided three years in prison was not enough.
In brief
She filmed her boyfriend leaning out of the window at 35mph. Two years on, the Court of Appeal decided three years in prison was not enough. Filming while driving is not treated as a small lapse, and a sentence trimmed for youth or prison conditions can be undone on appeal. Originally reported by Dailymail.
Her sentence just grew
A driver who killed her teenage boyfriend while filming him hanging out of the car window has had her jail term increased by a year and a half.
Filming from the driver's seat
Mia Howarth, 21, was videoing 17-year-old Alfie Lovett as he sat on the frame of the open window, the Court of Appeal heard.
Three years became four and a half
Howarth was originally jailed for three years. On Friday, appeal judges replaced that with four and a half.
The Attorney General stepped in
The Attorney General called the original term unduly lenient and referred the case up, saying it failed to punish Howarth or deter anyone else.
“unduly lenient”
A single carriageway in 2023
On 12 September 2023, Howarth, then 18, was driving a Peugeot 107 on a rural North Yorkshire road.
Three boys and thumping music
Her passengers were three 17-year-old boys, the music was loud, and the group was heading for Brimham Rocks, a National Trust site near Harrogate.
“thumping music”
35mph, phone in hand
She was filming Alfie on Snapchat at 35mph when she lost control of the car.
Verge, then dry-stone wall
The Peugeot veered into a grass verge and hit a dry-stone wall.
Alfie died at the scene
He was caught between the wall and the car. Passers-by tried CPR. He died there.
A guilty plea in March
Howarth admitted causing death by dangerous driving at York Crown Court in March this year.
Punish, and deter
Kelly Brocklehurst, for the Attorney General, accepted the mitigation was real but argued the sentence still had to do two jobs.
“ultimately it was a sentence that had to punish the offender and deter further acts”
Prison conditions, no discount
Lord Justice Popplewell, sitting with Mr Justice Linden and Mrs Justice Hill, said the sentencing judge should not have shortened the term over poor conditions in UK prisons.
Too much off for youth
The bigger mistake, the judges found, was how far the original sentence was cut to reflect Howarth's age.
“We agree the judge fell into error in the way he applied a reduction for youth.”
The wait counted for little
Judges said the delay in charging her offered only limited mitigation, even though she had admitted at the roadside that she killed him.
Unacceptable, said her lawyer
Glenn Parsons argued the charging delay was indefensible precisely because there was never any doubt about what had happened.
A profound tragedy
Parsons told the court Howarth's own grief was overwhelming, and that the case was a tragedy rather than a crime of indifference.
“profound tragedy”
Embedded in his family
She was close to the Lovetts and had been a good influence on Alfie, her lawyer said.
“embedded”
He had a baby
Alfie had become a father 12 weeks before he died.
The seatbelt rule she set
Howarth told police she had made the boys wear seatbelts and warned them what would happen if they did not.
“her fault”
Sobbing on the link
She watched the hearing by video from HMP Low Newton near Durham and cried through it.
The key point
Filming while driving is not treated as a small lapse, and a sentence trimmed for youth or prison conditions can be undone on appeal.
