A mum read out a heartbreaking message to the man who killed her daughter before he was jailed for more than three years. Chloe Hayman, 17, from the town of Mountain Ash in Wales, died while travelling in a car driven by Keilan Roberts, who was fuelled by a cocktail of alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine.
Roberts, 22, had also inhaled an entire bottle of laughing gas earlier in the evening of July 23 last year, Wales Online reports. Cardiff Crown Court heard that Roberts met Chloe at the Platform 11 nightclub in Pontypridd after having an argument with his girlfriend.
The pair kissed later in the evening as they were driven home by a friend of Roberts and stopped at a garage to get wine and beer. As they passed through the village of Deri, Roberts asked his friend to stop the car so he could get something from his own car, a Skoda Octavia. Without warning, he drove off with Chloe in the passenger seat, driving at 40mph on a winding, downhill road with a 30mph limit.
The friends then saw the car spinning "out of control and sideways" before slamming into a stone wall near Fochriw, a few miles away. Chloe was killed in the impact - Roberts called 999 and was heard crying as he told the operator someone had died.
A local resident who came to investigate after hearing a loud bang found Roberts sitting in the driver's seat, drinking from a bottle of Peroni lager, as Chloe sat slumped over. Asked if he was alright, the thug replied: "Do I f***ing look like I'm alright?"
A post-mortem later found Chloe had died after sustaining wounds to her head, chest and heart. Roberts appeared to be uninjured. He said he had drunk three 330ml bottles of Peroni "on the head" – meaning straight down – after the accident. Prosecutor Jason Howells described this as an attempt to "frustrate" the ability of police to take a precise alcohol reading.
A test showed Roberts had at least 96mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood – over the Welsh legal limit of 80mg – and had cocaine, ketamine and ecstasy in his system. Police analysis showed the road surface did not contribute to the crash and the court heard that Roberts' Skoda would have failed an MOT test due to the two rear tyres being worn.
In a heart-wrenching statement to the court, Chloe's mother Danielle tearfully paid tribute to her daughter. She also blasted Roberts, but told the thug, who cried in the dock as the statement was read out, that she forgave him.
Danielle said: "Losing Chloe has brought so much loss, pain and heartbreak to me and my family. Finding love, getting married, becoming a mother. Those are all things that have been taken away from her. It hurts more than anything, knowing I will never hear her voice again. Sometimes that is too much to bear.
"It fills me with sadness that she will not be there to guide her siblings through life. She was cheeky, mischievous, and she really was a soul who touched everyone who knew her."
She added to Roberts: "I do forgive you. I just want you to learn. Drinking and taking drugs, these things are not a way of life. There are other things out there. Go to the beach and enjoy your friends. You won't find peace and happiness from all those things you took that night."
Chloe's stepmother Alix added: "I look at the person responsible, Keilan, and ask you 'why: why did you get behind the wheel of the car when you knew what you had taken?' While that death meant nothing to you, just another random girl you met on a night out, she was our world and you have torn our family apart."
Roberts, of Maes-y-Haf in Rhymney, pleaded guilty to causing death by driving while over the drink and drug limits. Jeff Jones, defending, said Roberts was "extremely" remorseful and "can't forgive himself for what he has done".
Judge David Wynn Morgan said: "Chloe Hayman is no statistic. She was a real living person who would be alive today had you not taken the selfish, criminally foolish and intoxicated decision to put her in your car and to drive it.
"Aside from the disbelief the court feels at the folly of your behaviour, the court's primary preoccupation is deep sympathy for her mother, father...and all who knew her and whose lives were evidently enriched by her."
Roberts was jailed for three years and nine months, half of which will be served in custody, and banned from driving for 10 years. Judge Morgan acknowledged the sentence may "seem inadequate" but said it was in line with sentencing guidelines.
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