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Widow of cyclist killed by drink-driver says he should have been jailed for life

Eight year sentence and ten year ban for driver at least three times over limit who left scene

The widow of a cyclist killed by a driver who was three times over the alcohol limit says his sentence should have been life, and not just eight years.

Kingsley Gordon-Allen, 20, hit Edward Orrey, 56, outside Leytonstone tube station at around 6.30am on February 9, 2013. Mr Orrey, who was on his way home from working as a steel erection foreman on the “Cheesegrater” Leadenhall Building, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gordon-Allen pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving whilst unfit through alcohol. He was sentenced on Friday at Wood Green Crown Court to eight years in prison and disqualified from driving for ten years.

He had been on the wrong side of the road when he hit Mr Orrey — also known as George — and was at least three times over the alcohol limit. He drove away from the scene, leaving his victim to die in the road.

Yesterday, his widow, Elaine, condemned the “disgusting” sentence, telling the Evening Standard's Simon Freeman: “He should serve life for taking away my husband’s life.

“My husband had just learned he was going to be a grandfather again …  He was killed a few days after my birthday and a few days before we were about to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. On my birthday every year I will remember my husband and what this man did to him.”

Shortly after Mr Orrey’s death, his wife told the Standard: “I am mad, furious. The driver should be made to stand in that mortuary and look at what they have done. Maybe then they will show some remorse, looking at what they have left on the side of the road.

“George had everything he needed for his bike. He was in a dangerous job and he did everything he could to be safe in that job, it was the same on his bike. If there was any time to get away from it he would have done but it was head on and he stood no chance.”

Gordon-Allen’s abandoned Peugeot 206 was located a short while after the crash in nearby Bushwood, E11. Two other males, aged 18 and 16, were arrested with him, but later released with no further action.

A post-mortem examination took place on Monday, February 11 at Walthamstow Mortuary and gave cause of death as multiple injuries.

The offence of causing death by careless driving whilst unfit through alcohol carries a range of penalties from 18 months' to 14 years' imprisonment depending on the severity of the conduct leading to the fatality and the degree of intoxication.

In this case, with a reading of over three times the alcohol limit and aggravating factors such as failing to stop, the likley range is 7-12 years. Pleading guilty is a mitigating factor which a judge would have taken into account.

CTC Road Justice campaigner Rhia Weston said: Drivers who enter early guilty pleas can receive up to a third off their sentence, thus, if the driver hadn’t entered a guilty plea, logically the judge would have imposed a 12 year prison sentence. This is very close to the maximum 14 year penalty, which is rarely used as there have to be multiple aggravating factors involved such as previous driving convictions and several victims.

"CTC’s Road Justice campaign is calling for tougher sentencing that discourages bad driving and removes dangerous drivers from the roads, with a focus on substantial driving bans and custodial sentences for the worst offenders. The campaign will hold a debate on sentencing of bad drivers in June 2014."

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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39 comments

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publandlord | 9 years ago
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in these sort of events there needs to be more advice for the family as the police and cps only relays information that benefits them doing the least amount of work possible. If we was given all the information we would have done things differently

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Stumps | 9 years ago
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frankie, i dont think anyone on this forum would expect you to forgive him, i cant imagine how you feel about all this but rest assurred you have the thoughts of everyone on this forum.

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frankie1979 replied to Stumps | 9 years ago
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Thank you. Our lives have been torn apart. My dad was my world and it is as hard today as the day I was told.

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frankie1979 | 9 years ago
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I am the daughter of George Orrey. I firstly want to confirm that the charge was careless and not dangerous driving. Kingsley Gordon-Allen in my eyes is a heartless killer and will definitely go on to seriously injure/ murder further innocent people as he proved attacking yet another innocent man on new years day resulting in the poor man losing an eye - but atleast he did walk away. At 20 years old he has been in trouble many times before killing my dad and driving a mile in his smashed up car leaving my dad to die alone. I will NEVER forgive him and his family disgust me - saying at court that we need to accept accidents happen!!! This was no accident he intentionally got into his car very drunk, drove over 30 minutes in this state, killed my dad, drove a further mile, left the car and ran to get a taxi to go home to bed!!! I know many people will disagree with this but as far as I am concerned this country should operate a life for a life justice system - end of.

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Bigfoz | 9 years ago
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Time to end this "Death by dangerous / careless" nonsense. We only need murder and manslaughter, with sentences appropriate. Doesn't matter if you kill someone with a knife, a gun, or a car. They're still dead by your hand. There is no other "careless death" law except for drivers.

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thereverent | 9 years ago
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Causing death by dangerous or careless driving should be a automatic life ban from driving, no exceptions.
Likewise for a second offence of being caught over the alcohol limit.

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gb901 | 9 years ago
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Driving whilst pissed isn't "careless" its downright dangerous!

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a_to_the_j | 9 years ago
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unless clearly stated as an accident, any death should result in your "life" being taken away, i.e. jail for life.

this guy will be out in 4 years on good behavior after watching plenty of Sky Sports tv in his cell while the widow will still be grieving coming up to her 40th wedding anniversary.

 102

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Denzilwood | 9 years ago
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I find it hard for any accident to be classified as careless,

But feel it should automatically be dangerous driving if you are breaking the law whilst driving and cause an accident.
If you knowing break the law by being on the Phone, Speeding , drunk etc. the defence of carelessness should be unavailable as your decisions have automatically created a dangerous situation.

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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This driver should be strung up not sent to prison. Some might say his 8 year sentence is a joke, some might say his sentence is harsh given that many drivers that kill get a handshake from the judge and jury. Either way something is badly wrong with our justice system that allows some one to get back in a car albeit after some time who previously showed such contempt for other road users by driving pissed, three times over the limit, then fled when he realised what he had done. The scum bag should be strung up, but sadly all the liberal do gooders and Guardian readers won't hear of it. They do those that have to deal with the loss of their loved ones a great disservice.

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felixcat replied to Airzound | 9 years ago
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Airzound wrote:

The scum bag should be strung up, but sadly all the liberal do gooders and Guardian readers won't hear of it. They do those that have to deal with the loss of their loved ones a great disservice.

Killing a murderer does no real good to the bereaved. Some of those who had a family member killed by the IRA have publically forgiven the murderers. This forgiveness is what is taught by the Christian religion, and other religions too. It is not confined to liberals or Guardian readers.

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Initialised | 9 years ago
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"The driver should be made to stand in that mortuary and look at what they have done. Maybe then they will show some remorse, looking at what they have left on the side of the road."

If they don't show remorse they should be locked up for life as they are probably a dangerous psychopath.

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northstar | 9 years ago
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This goes way beyond "dangerous driving".

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Critchio | 9 years ago
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seven replied to Critchio | 9 years ago
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Critchio wrote:

This guy is a scumbag;
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/10919023.Attacked_man_loses_eye/

What a nice sounding chap.

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to seven | 9 years ago
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Is it at all possible it's an error on the part of the Evening Standard and it really was the (far more appropriate, I'd have thought) "dangerous driving"?

Googling just turns up the other interesting illustrations of the guy's character that others have linked to above.

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gb901 replied to Critchio | 9 years ago
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Critchio wrote:

This guy is a scumbag;
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/10919023.Attacked_man_loses_eye/

So while waiting for his "hit and run" case to be dealt with in court he goes out over the new year and assaults another poor guy, who subsequently loses an eye - charming!

Wonder what slap on the wrist hell get for this latest misdemeanour?

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picko | 9 years ago
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Careless?! How the cocking balls was this not a charge of dangerous driving?! The CPS need to take their head out of their arses. Grrrrrrrr......

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FluffyKittenofT... | 9 years ago
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I don't know what I think about the sentence itself. I don't really know what my view is about prison sentences generally - one can _always_ up the ante and insist it should be higher. I suppose the main question is consistency.

But I remain baffled about the whole concept of 'careless' vs 'dangerous' driving. It makes very little sense to me.

Driving while seriously under the influence of alcohol seems to me to be clearly dangerous. Driving at twice or more the speed limit is surely dangerous. Who or what decided that is merely 'careless'?

Is there any actual science behind this? Any factual basis for decreeing that, for example, driving at twice the speed limit (as in the case of the guy who recently had his sentence halved after killing a child) is not, in fact, dangerous? I note that in that case the driver lost control after hitting a speed bump at nearly 40mph, which, to me, I guess naively, suggests that driving at that speed in a 20mph residential speed-bump area is, in fact, rather dangerous.

Are there no guidelines on these matters? And if so, should they not be redrawn so they actually make sense?

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Stumps | 9 years ago
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I agree with levermonkey here, it should never be careless when you look at his readings. 3 times the limit is at least 105mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, also remember he left the scene and was not caught till later so his readings at the time of the accident could have been higher.

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levermonkey | 9 years ago
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Two things surprised me.

1) That his sentence was as high as 8 years.
2) "Causing death by careless driving whilst unfit through alcohol." How the Hell can that be careless? Even if you had been living under a rock on Mars for the last hundred years you would understand that drinking and driving are totally unacceptable. He knowingly drank alcohol, he knowingly got in a motor car, he knowingly drove it on the public road. How is that not classed as dangerous?

This man left a fellow human being to die in the street and it seems to count for nothing. He pleads guilty in court and because he is saving the justice system time and money that counts for everything.

IT IS WRONG! IT IS WRONG! IT IS WRONG!

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Neil753 | 9 years ago
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Yep, hit and runs resulting in death should attract a mandatory lifetime ban. Easy implimented, easily understood. The thing is, with so many of us choosing not to drive, it's perfectly possible for an offender to adapt to a life without a car, even if the average Jaguar driving judge sees it differently.

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seven | 9 years ago
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Lifetime ban, no question. This is where sentencing currently falls pathetically short of what is necessary. Driving licenses are actually quite hard to get these days, yet they are insultingly easy to keep.

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anarchy | 9 years ago
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you don't get much justice through the courts, and why only careless driving? If this happened to someone I love, I'd seek my own retribution

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jacknorell | 9 years ago
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Why doesn't leaving the scene mitigate the guilty plea?

WTF does the guilty pleas ALWAYS count for so much more than all the aggravating circumstances!?

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Gweeds replied to jacknorell | 9 years ago
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jacknorell wrote:

Why doesn't leaving the scene mitigate the guilty plea?

Because the law may excuse hot blood but not cold blood.

It's why crime of passion will often result in a less severe sentence than a planned act.

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bobinski replied to jacknorell | 9 years ago
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jacknorell wrote:

Why doesn't leaving the scene mitigate the guilty plea?

WTF does the guilty pleas ALWAYS count for so much more than all the aggravating circumstances!?

because it saves the additional costs associated with preparing for a trial, as well as more court time and saves loved ones the additional stress and grief associated with waiting for and enduring a contested trial. It is and always has been the most significant mitigating factor in the vast majority of cases. So, assuming 1/3rd off for a timely guilty plea the starting point for sentence was about 11/12 years which on current guidance/authority is about right. He will be eligible for release after serving half the sentence but will remain on licence until the end of the sentence.

Manslaughter? Definitely not...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10663783/One-punch-
killers-receive-average-sentences-of-less-than-four-years.html

Properly charged and appropriately sentenced on the law and guidelines. Would i like to see them changed upwards? yes.

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proliteguy | 9 years ago
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So if kill some one with a gun and sober I get 25 years but being pissed up driving a lethal weapon only 8 years. Glad I now live in a country where we still have capital punishment

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pz1800 | 9 years ago
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Anyone who causes death by their driving should never drive again. And in this case, the prison term should have been 12 years.

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oldstrath | 9 years ago
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Don't understand how this is not murder - if I killed someone with a knife while too pissed to know better would I be let off this lightly?

At the very least he should lose the right drive, ever.

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