Girls whose sister was killed when their dad smashed Toyota Auris into a wall plead for his prison release
He claimed his Toyota Auris had faltered in what is known as Sudden Unintended Acceleration – a condition often accompanied by loss of braking power and which can be caused by a mechanical or electrical fault. But there was no
evidence the two-year old car had any faults, and Judge Stuart Driver QC found Chizoro had intended to brake but instead hit the accelerator.
Girls whose sister was killed when their dad smashed car [Toyota Auris] into a wall plead for his prison release
Eva Edohasim, 13 – who needed abdominal surgery after the crash and spent four weeks in hospital – has written to the court pleading for her father Chizoro to be allowed home
By
Amy Sharpe
22:03, 3 FEB 2018
Two girls whose sister was killed when their dad smashed his car into a wall are pleading for his release from prison.
Little Olivia Edohasim, nine, died in the back seat of the family car as she and sister Eva, 11, were being driven to a Saturday morning maths lesson.
Dad Chizoro, a doctor specialising in addiction, was jailed for four years for causing death by dangerous driving and causing injury by dangerous driving.
But Eva, now 13 – who needed abdominal surgery after the crash and spent four weeks in hospital – has written to the court pleading for her father to be allowed home.
She wrote: “We’re trying to deal with the loss of my sister, me and my dad’s physical and emotional trauma and the rest of my family emotional trauma.”
And in her own letter, younger sister Serena, eight – who was not in the car – pleaded: “Please, please, let daddy go.”
Chizoro Edohasim with his daughters (L to R) Eva, who is
appealing for his release with sister Serena; Olivia, who
died in the crash and wife Bethel
(Image: John Gladwin/Sunday Mirror)
Chizoro, 47, had failed to brake for a red light while driving at nearly twice the speed limit, careering into a wall as he struggled to keep control.
He was also injured, needing nine hours of surgery on his crushed legs.
The girls’ mum Bethel, 42, has now launched an appeal, saying of her husband’s sentence: “Our pain is ten times worse because of this decision.”
She asked: “Who is being punished here? My daughters are being made to suffer. My children and I are the victims in this case – we are bereft, but our views have been completely ignored.
“Our daughter died in that crash. No sentence could ever punish my husband more than he has punished himself. He is a broken man.”
Dad Chizoro, a doctor specialising in addiction, was jailed for four years for causing death by dangerous driving and causing injury by dangerous driving(Image: MEN)
Bethel has released the poignant letters written by the girls, in a bid to highlight her daughters’ anguish.
Chizoro, known to loved ones as Barny, was found to have been travelling at 59mph in a 30mph zone. After failing to stop, his car accelerated to 67mph before hitting the wall.
Recalling the crash in May 2016, Bethel told how the girls’ tutor had called to say they had not shown up.
Moments later Serena, then six, saw three police cars outside their home in Altrincham, Cheshire.
Bethel said: “They asked about my husband’s car and said there’d been an accident. I was in shock.”
Bethel Edohasim(Image: John Gladwin/Sunday Mirror)
Police identified Olivia by the little blue trainers she had been wearing, then told Bethel her daughter had suffered fatal injuries.
Bethel said: “I collapsed screaming.”
Eva had been rushed to Manchester Children’s Hospital and Chizoro to Wythenshawe. The mum had to give consent for Eva to be operated on and then, with her husband also in surgery, identify Olivia’s body alone.
She recalled: “I saw her lying there and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I kept calling her name, begging her to get up, please get up. She didn’t respond.”
To save slowing their recovery, Bethel initially told them Olivia had survived. It was two weeks before they were strong enough to hear the truth.
“They were inconsolable,” she said. “The pain and horror in Barny’s eyes was like nothing I’ve seen before.”
Doctors sent both Eva and her father home after a month. Chizoro was confined to a wheelchair.
Bethel said: “Barny arrived home then sat in one spot, his head in his hands, and wept for hours.
“When a man cries like that, you know he’s torturing himself.” But she does not blame her husband. She said: “There was no confrontation, not for a second. I know my husband. His family are everything.
“He was the man driving the car in which my daughter was killed. Guilt and heartbreak were eating him alive. I held no bitterness toward him.
“We clung to the thought that God cares for us all, and for a child like Olivia, who is so kind-hearted, she will be in heaven.”
Chizoro, 47, had failed to brake for a red light while driving at nearly twice the speed limit, careering into a wall as he struggled to keep control(Image: MEN)
Three months after the crash, Chizoro was arrested – and ordered not to contact his children for six weeks while a psychiatric review was arranged by social services.
With friends unable to help out due to his disabilities, he stayed at a hotel – at a cost of more than £2,500.
Bethel said: “I’ve no problem with the police investigating, our daughter’s precious life was lost in that accident. But who were they trying to protect? My girls had lost their sister and now you’ve asked their dad not to come home for six weeks. They cried and cried.”
In September 2016, Chizoro was charged and allowed home. Yet it was only last December – more than a year later – that he went to trial.
The delays made it impossible for the family to properly grieve. Bethel said: “The trial was pushed back three times. How could we process the loss with that hanging over us?”
Finally appearing at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court, Chizoro denied the charges.
He claimed his Toyota Auris had faltered in what is known as Sudden Unintended Acceleration – a condition often accompanied by loss of braking power and which can be caused by a mechanical or electrical fault. But there was no evidence the two-year old car had any faults, and Judge Stuart Driver QC found Chizoro had intended to brake but instead hit the accelerator.
Prior to sentencing, Bethel had pinned her hopes on Crown Prosecution Service guidelines that say a family relationship between a victim and offender in dangerous driving cases “may be a mitigating factor”. Bethel handed a victim impact statement to the court, urging: “We have suffered enough as a family. Please let God touch your heart not to compound the problems for me and my two remaining children.”
On January 26 – 21 months after the crash – Chizoro was sentenced to four years and banned from driving for five years.
Judge Driver told him: “I accept you were a loving father and this will make a significant difference to your sentence. But the offences you committed were so serious only a substantial prison sentence can be imposed.”
Still reeling from the shock, Bethel said: “I used to value the justice system but I’ve lost all respect for it. My husband would not deliberately or carelessly put his children’s lives at risk.
“Who is benefiting here? Not my children, not myself and not the public. He has given everything trying to make the world a better place.
“They could have given him a suspended sentence – instead, I had to go home and tell my children their daddy has been locked up. They are devastated.”
As sole parent to her daughters, Bethel has had to reduce her teaching hours, leaving money tight. But she is determined to fight the sentence. Solicitor Karibo Lawson, of Ashcott Solicitors, submitted an appeal this week.
While Chizoro’s motor insurance covered his trial defence, his friends have now begun a crowdfunding page for appealing his sentence. So far, more than £4,000 has been raised towards their £20,000 target.
Bethel vowed: “We will not stop until he is free, we have to fight for justice.
“Don’t accidents happen? The events of that very normal Saturday have destroyed our family’s future. Having Olivia’s father in prison will serve no public good.
“Visiting him this week in prison left me traumatised. I can’t take my daughters to see him at the moment. Seeing him so broken would devastate them.
“Serena asks for her daddy to read her bedtime story every night. When Eva reads comments about her dad, she breaks down and cries. They love him to death, they have no bitterness. None of us do.”
■To donate to Bethel’s appeal, visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/c-anosike
Road death rulings 'lottery'
While Chizoro Edohasim was jailed for four years, many other drivers have seen astonishing lenience.
■Last month Yasser Iqbal, 29, was jailed for just 15 months at Bradford Crown Court after killing Kenneth Parratt, 71, in a hit and run. Uninsured Iqbal had previous convictions for driving while banned – on three occasions.
■In April 2016 Anastacia James crashed her car after smoking cannabis – killing her daughter Destiny James-Keeling, 14, and Megan Marchant, 18. She got two years for each at Leicester Crown Court, to run concurrently.
■Katie Foster, who was “texting at the wheel seconds before” she killed Lee Cain, 36, was jailed for just seven months at Durham Crown Court in January. Lee’s family said they were “disgusted” at the sentence.
■Last month a joyrider aged 15 who drove a stolen car into a tree, killing five passengers – including children aged 12, 14 and 15 – was told he would serve just two years in a young offender unit, and two and a half on licence. The sister of one said at Leeds Crown Court: “It’s not even a year for a life.”
Voice of the Sunday People: Better way to punish doctor dad
It’s difficult to argue against a jail sentence for Chizoro Edohasim.
He was speeding. He ran a red light. He crashed into a wall, killing his daughter who was in the car with him.
The courts found him guilty of death by dangerous driving.
There can be no doubt he did wrong.
But it might be time to have a more sophisticated think about his punishment.
No one is suggesting that, because he is a doctor, he should be above the law.
But maybe a four-year prison sentence is not the best thing for him.
This is not a case of jail time to teach him the error of his ways.
He knows all about that. As his wife Bethel says, he is ‘torturing’ himself.
Perhaps there is a way he could carry out his sentence in the community and put his skills as a doctor to use.
The other benefit of that would be to heal the heartbreak of his family.
They are desperate for him to come home, writing letters to the authorities asking them to ‘let daddy go’.
After all, at home are two little girls missing their baby sister
And, for the moment, their father is lost to them as well.
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