A grieving father told a judge ‘this is a s*** show’ and stormed out of court after a driver who ran over and killed his 11-year-old daughter while doing 47mph in a 30mph zone avoided jail.
Matthew Boshell told Warwick Crown Court how he had to make the heart-wrenching decision to turn off the life support of daughter Isabelle, and watched her ‘lips turn blue and her hands go cold’ after the crash in Coventry on October 22.
The court heard how Ola Onubogu, 53, was well over the speed limit as he rushed home from work and ploughed into the schoolgirl in his Toyota Verso.
She was rushed to hospital but died four days later.
Onubogu, of Coventry, admitted causing death by careless driving last month and was warned he faced a prison term.
But the driver was only handed a six-month suspended sentence, 120 hours of unpaid work and a 15-month driving ban.
On hearing Onubogu was being spared prison, Mr Boshell stood up in court and told the judge ‘this is a s*** show’ before walking out.
Ola Onubogu, 53 (left), was well over the speed limit as he rushed home from work and ploughed into Isabelle Boshell (right) in his Toyota Verso
Judge Anthony Potter told Onubogu: ‘There is nothing you can do and nothing I can do that can possibly take away the pain Isabelle’s family suffer and will continue to suffer for the rest of their lives.
‘You accept you were travelling at greater than the speed limit and at a stage where you approached where Isabelle was walking there is a pedestrian crossing and ‘slow’ painted on the surface.
‘She came from the right side, running between traffic behind a van, and because of your speed you were unable to stop.
‘You are a parent yourself. It is impossible to imagine what goes through a parent’s mind when they are faced with the decision on whether they should allow life support to be withdrawn – and they had to make that decision.
‘There are no words that could possibly express the loss the Boshell family has suffered.
‘Had you obeyed the speed limit on that road, no matter how unpredictable Isabelle’s actions might have been, you would have been able to avoid that accident.’
Onubogu was driving home from work on the B4098 when Isabelle, who was with two friends, ran out into the road.
Graham Russell, prosecuting, said police crash investigators confirmed that had Onubogu been travelling at 30mph he would have had time to brake.
He said: ‘Many children cannot judge how fast cars are going or how far away they are, and it may have been shielded from her view by another car travelling in the opposite direction.
‘She began to run across the road.
‘If the defendant did not see her start to run, she would first have been visible just a second later when she emerged from the rear of a passing van.’
Isabelle was rushed to Birmingham Children’s Hospital with a brain injury but she died four days later after having her life support turned off.
Onubogu, of Coventry, admitted causing death by careless driving last month and was warned he faced a prison term. But the driver was only handed a six-month suspended sentence, 120 hours of unpaid work and a 15-month driving ban
Before walking out of court, Mr Boshell read a statement in which he said: ‘Every day I wake up and have to come to the realisation that Isabelle is no longer with us.
‘The pain left behind is like nothing I have ever felt. It is with me every second I am awake.
‘When they turned the machine off we watched her lips turn blue and her hands go cold.
‘Walking out of the room was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.’
In a statement, Onubogu said: ‘I have children of my own and cannot believe my actions have placed the family of another child in such pain.’
Ruth Zentler-Munro, defending, said: ‘He accepts full responsibility for what happened.
He accepts he was speeding, and that if he had not been speeding, none of us would be here today.
‘He is deeply remorseful. This is a man who is absolutely stricken by his lack of judgement on that day.
‘He is devastated by the consequences of his actions.
‘He was rushing back from work to his family and his attention on approaching the crossing was between the side road at the approach to the school and the lights of the crossing.’
