A Co Antrim pensioner who knocked down and killed an eight-year-old schoolgirl will receive a suspended sentence, a court heard today.
Scarlett Rossborough died after being struck by a car driven by John Noble Lindsay on High Street in Carrickfergus in August 2023.
Lindsay (92), from Prince Andrew Way in Carrick, admitted a charge of causing Scarlett’s death by dangerous driving.
He is currently in hospital and was excused from attending today’s hearing at Belfast Crown Court.
Giving her judgement in the case, Judge Patricia Smyth said she will be imposing a ten-month sentence upon Lindsay, which will be suspended for 12 months, “when he is well enough” to be sentenced.
The former RUC officer will also be banned from driving for five years.
The Belfast Recorder said: “The enormity of the tragedy cannot be put into words.
“Scarlett was a beautiful, happy child, loved by all who knew her. She was eight years old and described as the princess of the family.
“She was the kindest, most sensitive, empathetic little person. She was determined and passionate.”
Revealing that Scarlett loved sports, music and was a keen artist and gymnast who loved to play with her little brother, Judge Smyth said: “There is no sentence that I can pass that will bring any comfort to Scarlett’s parents and family, who have suffered so much.
“The shocking circumstances of her death have affected so many people and nothing can turn back the clock and restore the precious young life that has been lost.”
On the day in question, Scarlett, who attended Linn Primary School in Larne, was among a group of children and adult leaders from a local community centre summer scheme enjoying a day out to Carrick Castle.
Crown barrister David Russell KC said that as the group was walking along the footpath on High Street, Lindsay’s car mounted the footpath and struck three children.
Prior to the collision, Lindsay had parked his car in a disabled parking space.
Mr Russell said that after initially parking his car, Lindsay was captured on CCTV exiting the vehicle then getting back into the car.
He then attempted to repark the car and began moving the vehicle backwards and forwards several times.
Saying this was “presumably an effort to move his car closer to the kerb”, Mr Russell said that “as the car reversed once more, with the front wheel steered to the right, its movement was initially slow before suddenly accelerating.
“The car mounted the footpath, striking Scarlett and at least two other children, then collided with the wall of an adjacent building, trapping Scarlett between the rear of the vehicle and the wall.”
Two other children were thrown into the doorway of a shop but didn’t suffer any serious injury.
In the direct aftermath of the collision, members of the public rushed to help and signalled for Lindsay to move his car forward. Both the PSNI and Ambulance Service attended the scene.
Due to the catastrophic injuries that she sustained, Scarlett could not be saved.
Mr Russell said that, at the point of impact, Lindsay’s car was travelling between 11-12 mph and that “pedal misapplication” could have been a possible cause of the collision, as could confusion on Lindsay’s part.
He added there was no suggestion or evidence to indicate that Lindsay deliberately steered his vehicle onto the footpath.
Police spoke to Lindsay at the scene. When he was asked what happened, he replied “I don't know” and said he had been trying to get into the parking space.
He was interviewed on August 29, 2023, and in a pre-prepared statement he accepted being the driver and that his vehicle mounted the footpath.
Lindsay also accepted hitting a wall. However, in the statement he said he was not initially aware of a collision with a pedestrian.
Mr Russell said Lindsay “ultimately accepted he collided with Scarlett and the other children” and “expressed his condolences both to Scarlett’s family and the other children involved”.
Defence barrister Frank O’Donoghue KC said: “The defendant has always accepted full responsibility for what occurred. His guilt is total and his feelings of guilt are unrelenting.
“The defendant has been devastated by what has occurred and he is fully aware of the unrelenting suffering that he has brought, by his actions, to Scarlett’s parents, siblings, stepmother, grandparents and wider family circle.”
The barrister said his client was “a man who, up to this point, lived an exemplary life” and that, “in over 70 years of driving, he never so much as received a parking ticket, let alone a penalty point, let alone being convicted of any driving offence.”
Mr O’Donoghue revealed that on the day after “this dreadful accident”, his client “surrendered his licence and he never drove again”.
He also spoke of Lindsay’s deteriorating health, with the court hearing that a recent medical report determined his life expectancy to be between nine months to a year.
During today’s hearing, Judge Smyth spoke of the loss suffered by Scarlett’s family, many of whom set out their grief in victim impact statements.
This included Scarlett’s mother, who has been left “haunted” by the tragedy and who has called for a new law (‘Scarlett’s Law’) which would ban, in the interests of the public, very elderly people from driving.
Judge Smyth also noted that Scarlett’s father’s life has been “ripped apart” by what happened to his daughter.
Saying this case “highlights the very real risk that elderly drivers pose to other road users”, Judge Smyth said: “If anything good can come out of this, it will be a new Scarlett’s Law.”
In Lindsay’s absence, Judge Smyth spoke of “exceptional circumstances” in the case, including the defendant’s “extreme age”, his ill health, limited life expectancy and his previous “unblemished character”, and ruled that an immediate prison sentence will not be imposed.
by BelfastTelegraph
23 comments
Scarlett Rossborough Beautician died in Belfast nightclub after taking drugs for first time, says dad
????????????
Jail the cunt.
Fucking hell, surely there has to be an age when we just have a cut off and you aren’t allowed to drive any more. Also some kind of test to confirm you are still able to drive after 80. Not a full on driving test again (I think a large portion would fail this regardless of age) but a sort of road worthiness check. If you are at the stage you can’t really work the remote control for the TV maybe it’s time to give up on the ton of metal.
My instructor always told me to pause my parking if pedestrians were on the footpath right where I was parking and this is something I still do all these years later – just in case.
Absolute fucking joke, 92 years old?? The fucking eejit shouldn’t have been anywhere near a steering wheel.
Why do folks bereaved in terrible accidents always try and get some law in place banning something they didn’t give a fuck about until it happened to them ?
Horrible story all around. Ultimately, I don’t think it would be right to a jail a 92 year old man given the fact this looks like a genuine accident. I would be interested to hear what the parents of the girl think about the sentence.
If it had been a young buck he’d have had the book thrown at him for death by dangerous driving.
Turns out if you’re old as fuck and have a clean record otherwise, it’s grand.
We need to stop pussyfooting around elderly drivers and start re-testing them! Eyesight test, spatial awareness test, reaction time test. I’ve seen many an OAP barely able to get in to their car due to mobility issues and I have no faith that they’d be able to perform an emergency stop. This man didn’t even realise he had ran over three fucking children!!
Essentially this is driving while impaired. This fellas impairment is due to his age.
So what’s the punishment?
Someone who is 92 years old has no business driving a car. I’m sorry but it’s the truth. As a society we need to just fucking get our act together and create a system that finds the right balance here between not denying people the freedom to do stuff, and protecting innocent bystanders from people who are highly likely to make serious driving errors.
The only time I came a whisper from dying was when, thank fuck I didn’t just assume I could walk across the road with a green man showing. An old codger just flew through the red light and if I hadn’t just developed a habit of always looking around me anyway, when walking crossing at lights, I’d just be dead or maimed. If I just checked my WhatsApps at that moment… Dead. I was able to jump back as he flew at about thirty miles an hour a whisker in front of my face, straight through the red light. I can still see his oblivious face in my head. It’s imprinted. He had no idea what he had almost done and just drove on.
Breaks my heart reading what happened to this child. Is renewing every three years from 70 on, good enough given how rapidly people can lose their faculties at that stage in life? Loads of countries have systems that test and retest you after a certain point. Here you can basically just drive until you are a menace to all and sundry and we just roll the dice on whether the tipping point is a random dead person.
I do get the anger at this sentence, but the guy is 92 years old, and I don’t think this was an intentional act. His brain is probably soup at this point, and he will soon die after spending the rest of his life in the knowledge that he’s killed a child. I don’t see how jailing him benefits anyone at this point.
But we do need to enforce some upper age limit to driving. Having a 92 year old at the wheel of a death trap, having not had his fitness to drive assessed for 70 years is beyond stupid and something that needs to be addressed.
If you’re fit enough to drive you’re fit enough for jail.
Imagine being in the RUC for thirty years all through the seventies and the good you did then being totally wiped out when you kill a child with your car when you’re ninety.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, OAPs need to take a full driving test on closed roads that determine their reactions, eyesight, ability to move there body, feet, arms, legs at least once per year when they hit early 60s.
I just don’t understand why the authorities deem an 80 year who’s eyes are on the way out, reaction times decades and can barely move their feet acceptable to be driving.
My step fathers neighbour is over 80, still driving, it takes him about 15mins to parrellel park his SUV into his front drive. Then he’ll get out of the car like there’s nothing out of the ordinary. All the while I’m supposed to be OK with my toddler being next door to him. I see so many old people as hazards now. When you have kids your hazard perception increases exponentially.
Yet if this was a young person issue they would be shat on from the highest degree.
My heart breaks for that poor family. God love them😔.
Wtf wasn’t Initially aware he hit a person hmmm I wonder at 92 what he was aware of, ive been saying it for years hit 65 and it should be at least every 5 years to repeat the driving test 92 wtf it takes somone to get killed, clearly shouldn’t have been driving that’s so utterly fucked what a wanker a suspended sentence what too old to go and do time but was fine to drive bullshit the law is as much at fault here as that old twat
Going light on an RUC man…….shocker, I dont care what age you are, if you kill a child you must pay for it with what time you have left.
I can probably see the sense in not jailing him but to not immediately remove his license is just unbelievable.
The story of this girl dying breaks my heart, maybe more so as I’ve 2 young girls. That guy should be doing jail time. It won’t bring the girl back but killing someone when driving deserves a custodian sentence. The law here is a real piss take
>“There is no sentence that I can pass that will bring any comfort to Scarlett’s parents and family, who have suffered so much.
Bullshit. The old codger being jailed would certainly bring comfort. It will send a message to other old codgers who refuse to hang up thr keys.
My MIL’s next door neighbour was very old and still drove around the town in her wee Micra. Wasn’t a fucking straight panel on it. I was coming up the Friary road in Armagh, towards the town, and was turning and indicating left onto the Ring Road. She was coming out of the Road and turning right. This is a very wide junction where vehicles can be 2 abreast, she nearly drove into me as I was turning in. She had full lock on and just kept going. Missed me and the car behind me by a whisker.
I was shaken up and called the cops, not to make a complaint but to see if they could do anything about it for her own bloody safety. They said that they’d go and speak to her. That was a waste of time, she was driving about the next week.
We’re just so immune to car related injury and death at this point. I’m more shocked when there’s a rare proper punishment in cases like this rather than the slap on the wrist that’s often the case.
Sooner we wise up and start treating driving a 2 ton metal box like the seriousness it should be given, the better.
“Former policeman” strikes me as an important detail here in why this 92 year old who literally killed a child is going to be given a suspended sentence and the promise of his license back.
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