Essex Police<\/a> arrested Ziobryte on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving shortly after the offence. But in January, the force said this charge was no longer being pursued.<\/p>\nThe incident happened as the children were approaching a junction on an e-scooter and Ziobryte\u2019s vehicle collided with them, Jasmin Akter, prosecuting, told the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s CCTV evidence that shows the defendant stops away from the scene,\u201d she said. She said Ziobryte made phone calls to her brother and to her partner but did not call emergency services or return to the scene.<\/p>\n
Ziobryte was today handed a three-month custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months, along with 80 hours of unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation days. She was also banned from driving for three years, beginning on March 6, and ordered to pay \u00a3239 in costs.<\/p>\n
Hulusi Ali, mitigating, said: \u201cThis was a panic-driven failure in the aftermath of a catastrophic event.\u201d He read from a letter from Ziobryte, who has recently given birth, which said she wanted to express \u201cmy sincere remorse\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve relived the events every day and I know I will carry the weight of these events with me for the rest of my life,\u201d she said. Mr Ali said Ziobryte \u201caccepts she should have stopped immediately, she accepts she should have contacted the emergency services\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said police found her in her vehicle nearby and \u201cshe admitted to the police at the scene\u201d about her involvement.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Rohini Majumdar said at a previous hearing that Ziobryte “swerved to avoid a collision” but made contact and the two youths suffered fatal injuries as a result.<\/p>\n
She said Ziobryte “continued to drive and didn’t stop” until later when she “made multiple calls to family members but not to police or emergency services”. Ms Majumdar added: “At no point did the defendant return to the scene of the collision to speak to police.”<\/p>\n
Roman and Darcie died of traumatic head injuries after they were struck while travelling on the e-scooter along Ashlyns approaching Stokefelde, and inquest earlier heard. Emergency services attended and Darcie was pronounced dead at 7.10pm, while Roman was pronounced dead at 7.50pm.<\/p>\n
Mr Ali said Ziobryte \u201chas recently given birth to a young daughter who is three weeks old\u201d. He said that \u201cthe prosecution concluded she wasn\u2019t the cause of the accident\u201d. Ziobryte pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to failing to stop at the scene of a collision.<\/p>\n
Their mother Emma said in a statement released through police that “their love, kindness and spirit live on in the hearts of all who knew them”.<\/p>\n
Deputy district judge Jennifer Twite said: \u201cThis is clearly an incredibly sad case.\u201d She said it was \u201cimpossible to imagine the grief that Darcie and Roman\u2019s parents are going through\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve no doubt their suffering was increased knowing you didn\u2019t stop at the scene of the accident,\u201d she told Ziobryte. She said it was \u201clucky in this case that other people did stop but that\u2019s not guaranteed\u201d.<\/p>\n
She noted her previous good character, her early guilty plea and that she had recently given birth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deimante Ziobryte, 21, failed to stop after a crash which killed Roman Casselden, 16, and his nine-year-old sister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[345,61,10663,3704,450,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-30223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-dangerous-driving","11":"tag-essex-police","12":"tag-inquests","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116528818631515963","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Cassie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_20250201-darcie-and-roman-casselden-v2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Basildon](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_JS342025429.jpg\")
<\/p>\n