I am in Court 5 at Snaresbrook Crown Court before His Honour Judge Saunders for a Plea and Sentence hearing of a 22-year-old Mr Karolis Andriukaitis, of Harrow Road.
Mr Andriukaitis has been charged with three offences:
Count 1 – Causing Death by Dangerous Driving
Count 2 – Failing to Stop
Count 3 – Failing to Report an accident
The court is told that counts 2 and 3 were pleaded guilty to at Barkingside Magistrates Court on May 5th 2020. Count 1 was passed up to the Crown Court where he initially pleaded not guilty.
The defendant, through the services of a Lithuanian Interpreter, has now changed his plea to Guilty on Causing Death by Dangerous Driving and now faces what the judge describes as a “lengthy custodial sentence”.
We hear details of the incident: It is 6.05am and Mr Andriukaitis is driving a White Mercedes car along ‘The Heathway’ in Rainham. He is racing another vehicle and they are both driving almost double the 30mph speed limit.
At speeds of approximately 60mph they approach the junction with Oxlow Lane. We are told at the time of the incident that the junction traffic lights were showing red and had been for some 13 seconds.
CCTV footage obtained from a neighbouring house shown to the court shows both cars overtaking a bus immediately before the junction. The front car passes through the junction however the rear car, driven by Mr Andriukaitis, tragically hits a car correctly crossing the junction. Unfortunately, the victim suffers what were described as “severe spinal injuries”. A quote from a medical report stated that any attempt at resuscitation would have been unsuccessful.
We hear that immediately following the accident members of the public approached the cars to assist, however this defendant jogged away from the scene. His passenger in the car is still at large. Following extensive enquiries, the police released an image of Mr Andriukaitis to the media and two days later on 4/5/2020 he had presented himself to the police.
We hear that during his police interview he answered no comment to almost everything apart from to say, through his interpreter, that he passes his deepest condolences to the family and “no one had planned the incident”. In response the prosecution contended that Mr Andriukaitis had made the deliberate decision to race another vehicle and did so for some time.
The court is told the defendant was also positively identified in a line-up by a witness and his DNA was also found on the steering wheel of the car.
Aggravating features of the offence are described by the prosecution were that this was a “prolonged persistent and determined display of very bad driving” at “significant speeds” along a road where many members of the public were present.
The victim’s son Mr Ben Hollis read out a moving Victim Impact Statement. He tells the court that from a young age his Dad brought both himself and his sister up single handed. Describing his dad as “the pinnacle of the family” his death has been hard on everyone including his Nan who had been relying on him as a carer for the past 6 years.
We hear that the funeral took place during the Covid restrictions and only a small number of people could attend, this was “upsetting and distressing” to the family.
We are told how the victim was close to retirement and how his grandkids will never experience being able to visit him the way they were able to visit their grandparents.
In any event the defence makes an application for a Pre-Sentence-Report to be made. In the most tactful way possible Ms Cooper, counsel for Mr Andriukaitis, explains that after extensive research of Court of Appeal judgements regarding Death by Dangerous Driving several mentions of the lack of a Pre-Sentence-Report were made.
It would be a shame “if found in a higher court that not all the relevant material had been before the court” she said.
The Judge grants the application, and the matter is adjourned until October 6th 2020. The defendant is released on bail under the same conditions and walks out of court at the end of the hearing.
UPDATE: It would appear the Oct 6th hearing was again adjourned. The Barking and Dagenham Post reported that the defendant received a 56-month-sentence.
Mouse in the Court 