A cop is facing a jail after a jury convicted her of causing serious brain injuries to a 15-year-old boy while driving dangerously on a 999 call.
PC Sarah De Meulemeester, 26, topped 61mph on 30mph limit roads and went the wrong way round a traffic island as made her way to an emergency in Stockport on Boxing Day, 2020, reports Manchester Evening News.
The police car smashed into Khia Whitehead, 15, on Garners Lane in Adswood, Stockport, leaving the boy with horrendous brain injuries. Ms De Meulemeester was guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving today, Friday, April 21..
The officer, of Mill Court, Chinley, Derbyshire, had admitted her driving was careless but denied it was dangerous.
The jury returned verdicts after only. two hours and 30 minutes of deliberations after the trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
Members of the teen's family exclaimed 'yes' in the public gallery as verdict was delivered. Others wept and hugged each other. The defendant, standing in the dock, showed no reaction.
PC De Meulemeester was released on bail before sentencing next month on May 19 but Judge David Aubrey KC warned her 'all options' remained open, including a jail sentence.
Judge Aubrey told the defendant: "You have been granted bail in the intervening period. However, all options including immediate custody remain open to the court and in the forefront of my mind has to be in accordance with legal principles such as sentencing notwithstanding your impeccable character that I will consider matters on May 19."
The judge slapped the PC an interim driving disqualification until sentencing, and thanked Khia's family and friends in the public gallery who he said had 'behaved impeccably throughout the trial notwithstanding the emotional charged nature' of it.
As the family watched, in her evidence the defendant told the court: "There's no words that can ever begin to say how sorry I am, how sorry I am this happened. There's nothing that can make it right."
The trial heard Khia was left in a persistent vegetative state following the smash. He was standing in the hatched area behind the island with a friend when another police car, with its blue lights on, sped past on its way to the domestic incident.
The jury heard Khia was distracted watching the car after it passed and stepped into the road not realising the defendant's vehicle and another GMP car were following. Khia suffered severe head and brain injuries.
The court heard PC De Meulemeester had slowed before the impact. The junior officer had been handed a 'basic driving authority' by GMP which meant she had to stick to the Highway Code when she responded to emergencies, the jury was told.
PC De Meulemeester, pressed during her evidence how she felt after the collision, said: "Horrible. There's no words really. I know no matter what I say there's nothing that can make it right.
"There's no words I can ever, ever say that will express how sorry I am for what happened. It's horrible."
She went on: "This whole incident doesn't just involve just one person. It affects a lot of lives, not just me, not just those people mentioned but everyone around as well. It's horrible to think the effect this has had."
The officer said that although she admitted careless driving she did not accept her driving was dangerous.
PC De Meulemeester told the court she was born and raised in Belgium and spoke Flemish, French and English. She came to the UK in 2014 and obtained a degree in criminal investigation and policing from De Montfort University in Leicestershire because she wanted a career in policing, the court was told.
After she graduated, the defendant failed in her first application to join Greater Manchester Police, but instead became a civilian call handler. But she made a second application and joined the force in early 2019, the jurors were told.
She began a 20-week initial training course in July 2019 before being posted to the Stockport division under the care of a police tutor. After a further 10 weeks, she was regarded as 'independent' and could be dispatched to jobs on her own, the defendant told the court.
PC Meulemeester said she 'absolutely loved' her job.
The officer said since she passed her driving test in 2019 she had received no penalty points or speeding tickets and had not been involved in any accidents.
After joining GMP she said she was handed a 'basic driving authority' after spending half-an-hour 'driving around' with a senior colleague. She agreed she knew this 'authority' did not give her powers to ignore traffic laws and that she still had to abide by the Highway Code when responding to incidents.
The PC said she drove to incidents virtually every day she was on shift in different cars.
She said she had responded to 'several' so-called 'grade one' 999 calls, the most serious incidents, before the Boxing Day crash and had never encountered problems previously.
PC Meulemeester agreed she was aware the roads on the approach to the destination were all 30mph limit roads and that her knowledge of the area was 'reasonable' although she had to use the satnav in her liveried Peugot 308.
It was en route she learned the man was armed with a knife, had used cocaine and had been threatened to torch his mother's house and was in the street smashing up cars, the court heard.
Asked why she had topped 50mph on the approach to the area, she answered: "I wasn't aware that's how fast I was going. I was just trying to get to the incident. I didn't pay attention to how fast I was going."
The jurors were told she had slowed to around 40mph close to a railway bridge and PC Meulemeester said this may have been to allow another police car to overtake hers.
Pressed why she then topped 61mph, the officer told the jury: "As my colleague was pulling away from me he was disappearing into the distance. I was just worried he was going to a violent person who now had a knife on his own."
She agreed she could have slowed down if she wanted to, however.
Asked why she didn't slow down, the PC told the court: "I didn't know that's how fast I was going. To me, it seemed I was driving normally and I didn't know I was going over the speed limit."
The officer, pressed on why she had moved into the 'wrong lane' to negotiate a traffic island, said she had seen the police car ahead go around a stationary car and she repeated she had wanted to 'get to the scene'.
She said she slowed down, but decided to go around the stationary car when it didn't move forward. She said she realised she 'didn't have enough space to get back on the normal side of the road'.
She said she thought she had slowed down but, asked if she could have down more, the defendant replied: "I'm not sure."
The officer said by then there was a police car in front and another 'right behind me' so close she could not see if its emergency lights were on.
The defendant said she became aware of two boys as she passed the traffic island and they were 'in the middle of the road stationary'. The PC indicated in court a distance of about three metres, adding that she 'started braking'.
The officer said she didn't realise at first that she had hit someone. The PC said she carried out an emergency stop, got out of her vehicle and 'saw what happened'.
Asked how she felt at the time, the officer paused and then told the court: "Distraught."
She recalled a colleague asking for an ambulance and that she helped by telling the colleague their location before going to 'offer assistance' to others.
She accepted she was traveling over the speed limit and told the court: "I wasn't paying attention to how fast I was going. I wanted to get to the incident we were going to."
Concluding her evidence in chief, the officer said: "There's no words that can ever begin to say how sorry I am, how sorry I am this happened. There's nothing that can make it right."
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