Merseyside MP tells of 'unbearable' loss after daughter Jennie killed

A Merseyside MP has told a court of the "unbearable" loss of his only daughter, who was killed in a hit-and-run crash.

Jennie Dowd, 31, daughter of Labour MP for Bootle Peter Dowd, died nine days after she was knocked off her bike in Sefton, near Crosby, in September 2020.

The driver, Lucy Ashton, 24, a care worker who had been on her way to work, has been jailed for 12 months and banned from driving for 18 months.

Ashton, of Sefton, admitted death by careless driving and failing to stop.

"The thought I will never see Jennie again is often unbearable," Mr Dowd told Liverpool Crown Court in an impact statement.

Ms Dowd, an NHS project manager at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, suffered major head injuries in the crash.

Ashton, of Lunt Road, "had panicked", the court heard, and was found to have left the scene. She was arrested later that day and was subsequently charged.

Mr Dowd, an MP since 2015 and a member of Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet from 2017 to 2020, said on the morning his daughter was knocked down, "I could hear emergency services' sirens and I could hear a helicopter close by, breaking the silence of that quiet morning".

"Little did I know they were on their way to help Jennie, who lay dying in the road just 100 yards from where I live.

"The idea that I was just a minute away from where she had been knocked down, deserted and left alone by the driver, injured and dying has stayed with me ever since."

He added: "So many people would say Jennie lit up the room. She did. This is what we will all miss. Her laugh. Her smile. Her humour. Simply her."

The court heard how Ms Dowd had married her partner, Samantha Brighton, 18 months earlier and they were embarking on IVF to start a family.

In sentencing, Judge David Aubrey QC told Ashton: "The life they had planned came to an end when you caused her death by driving your car carelessly.

"The inescapable conclusion is if you had been paying even moderate attention you would have seen her."

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