Drunk grandma jailed for man's death

WARWICK SMITH /Manawatu Standard

JAILED: Drunk driver Alison Downer in the dock of a Palmerston North courtroom where she was given a jail sentence for the death of cyclist Frank van Kampen.

Relevant offers

Crime

Suppression lifted on fatal Waikato crash accused Men in court after raid on Auckland apartment Suppression ends for hit and run accused Charges over Kapiti coast fatal car crash Stolen car chased through Wellington Suppression lapses for kidnap accused Schoolgirl sex video man guilty Cyclist shot, retaliates with rock New Zealand's 'biggest' P-lab busted Farm worker burst cow's eyeball with bar

A Kapiti Coast grandmother was today jailed for two years and two months for killing a cyclist while driving drunk.

The sentencing of 71-year-old Alison Downer who admitted causing the death of father-of-one Frank van Kampen was so emotionally charged that Judge Les Atkins stopped the hearing in Palmerston North District Court for 15 minutes at one point for calm to be restored.

Downer had pleaded earlier to driving with excess breath alcohol causing Mr van Kampen's death. Her level at 716 micrograms per litre of breath was nearly twice the legal limit.

She was banned today from driving for eight years for what was her fourth drink-driving conviction since 1991.

Downer had driven into Waikanae schoolteacher Mr van Kampen as he rode along the cycleway beside State Highway 1 north of Waikanae last September.

Police said she had crossed the centre line several times and veered back, before hitting Mr van Kampen from behind.

Mr van Kampen's fiancee Jude Pauwels sobbed as she sat alongside a supporter who read out her victim impact report in court today.

She told how 46-year-old Mr van Kampen was the love of her life.

"I adored him. We were going to get married this year."

The "vibrant, strong, healthy, intelligent, handsome man" she thought was invincible had become the main support in her life.

The couple had a daughter Alexandra, who was only 10 weeks old when her father was killed.

The little girl, now seven months old, would never know her father. Her mother dreaded the time when her daughter would inevitably ask where her daddy was.

In her statement, Ms Pauwels wrote: "I never got the chance to say goodbye. When he bounced out the door that morning, I never thought that would be the last time I saw him alive. He was brought back to me in a coffin."

When Downer's lawyer Sandy Baigent said the offending could not be described as the worst of its kind, because there wasn't a multiple fatality, Ms Pauwels shouted out: "You have got to be kidding. This is a joke."

After Judge Atkins called an adjournment for the atmosphere to calm, Ms Baigent said Downer had wanted to express her remorse to Mr van Kampen's family but thought they didn't want to hear from her.

Downer had had an unhappy marriage and became isolated after losing a daughter aged two.

She had voluntarily entered a treatment programme for alcoholism, but her lawyer said she had accepted she must go to prison which she described as a "most fearful prospect".

Judge Atkins said Downer had been a victim of violence in her early years and probably because of her alcoholism had been estranged from most of her children. She had also been a long-time user of anti-depressants.

He said that while she had difficulty expressing her remorse "in the glare of publicity", he accepted she had shown genuine remorse for Mr van Kampen's death.

Four years was his starting point from a maximum five-year penalty but he deducted one third for Downer's prompt guilty plea and six months for her offer of $30,000 reparation to Mr van Kampen's family.

Judge Atkins said he fully understood Ms Pauwels' reluctance to accept any money from the woman who killed her partner.

However, he ordered the reparation saying a decision to accept the payment need not be made immediately.

"She (Ms Pauwels) is, however, fully entitled to compensation."

The court was told the money could be put in a trust for the couple's two children.

Ms Pauwels, who was widowed when her first husband died, was in court today with Dante - her 13-year-old son from that marriage.

- NZPA