# If you're facing court, you're not this stupid



## Labradorofperception (25 Feb 2016)

Taken from the Road CC article about a recent tragic hit and run in Oxfordshire I came across this. 

https://www.change.org/p/public-make-it-law-for-a-cyclist-to-wear-a-helmet

Now, surely this cannot be the same person as the accused (same name, same town, sadly similar "circumstances")? If you're going not out you would not post this on Change.org.


----------



## Paul99 (25 Feb 2016)

Labradorofperception said:


> Taken from the Road CC article about a recent tragic hit and run in Oxfordshire I came across this.
> 
> https://www.change.org/p/public-make-it-law-for-a-cyclist-to-wear-a-helmet
> 
> Now, surely this cannot be the same person as the accused (same name, same town, sadly similar "circumstances")? If you're going not out you would not post this on Change.org.


Some people just have no shame I guess.

http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/...killing_cyclist_with_car_and_lying_to_police/


----------



## Rooster1 (25 Feb 2016)

Maybe she should start a petition for ZERO ALCHOHOL for drivers. Trying to shift the blame me-thinks.


----------



## snorri (25 Feb 2016)

As a driver it's illegal not to wear a seatbelt and receive a fine. ?????


Someone must have complained, the petition has been closed.


----------



## glenn forger (25 Feb 2016)

> A woman who hit and killed a cyclist in Cholsey in Oxfordshire last year has admitted causing death by careless bdriving. Appearing at Oxford Crown Court, Maria Sutton also admitted lying to police about her car being stolen, but denied being over the drink-driving limit.


----------



## EltonFrog (25 Feb 2016)

It beggars belief doesn't it? I hope she goes to prison for a very long time.


----------



## glenn forger (25 Feb 2016)

Just extraordinary. Remorse will be a factor in sentencing. She's incredibly stupid.


----------



## EltonFrog (25 Feb 2016)

glenn forger said:


> Just extraordinary. Remorse will be a factor in sentencing. She's incredibly stupid.



She probably won't got to prsion I think she might have a baby.


----------



## Poacher (25 Feb 2016)

CarlP said:


> It beggars belief doesn't it? I hope she goes to prison for a very long time.


I very much doubt that she will serve time, however much she deserves it. "Won't somebody think of the children?"
Edited: cross post with @CarlP 



glenn forger said:


> Just extraordinary. Remorse will be a factor in sentencing. She's incredibly stupid.


Was there any remorse? Claiming her car had been stolen, and starting a petition to make helmets compulsory, in which she also claims he had flashing lights, so it _must _have been his fault he got killed. Not much evidence of remorse there, I suggest.


----------



## glenn forger (25 Feb 2016)

I'm not a lawyer, I guess you could argue that yes, you killed someone and lied to the police, but you're REALLY sorry. Setting up a petition that blames the chap you killed makes that argument harder to win.


----------



## Milkfloat (25 Feb 2016)

If the prosecution challenge her over the petition I am sure she will claim her account was hacked.


----------



## fossyant (25 Feb 2016)

Unbelievable. Blame the cyclist for getting himself killed. What a scum bag


----------



## jefmcg (25 Feb 2016)

Milkfloat said:


> If the prosecution challenge her over the petition I am sure she will claim her account was hacked.


Actually, that is probably a pretty reasonable claim. That petition is the only thing done by that account. There really is no reason to believe it's actually her. It could have been created by anyone. 

(Yes, seizing her computer, checking IP addresses etc etc might prove it, but we certainly don't have enough evidence to know it was her)


----------



## Bollo (25 Feb 2016)

I'm sure she's looking at a stiff fine. And maybe points!


----------



## ufkacbln (25 Feb 2016)

> and had flashing lights.



So you saw the lights, yet still ran into him and killed him?


----------



## Arjimlad (25 Feb 2016)

It's impossible to underestimate the stupidity of some people.


----------



## flake99please (25 Feb 2016)

Facebook Profile of the person who created the petition...

https://www.facebook.com/maria.sutton.184


----------



## Globalti (25 Feb 2016)

Here's a sample of her English: _"As a driver it's illegal not to wear a seatbelt and receive a fine." _


----------



## jefmcg (25 Feb 2016)

flake99please said:


> Facebook Profile of the person who created the petition...
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/maria.sutton.184


How did you work that out?


----------



## deptfordmarmoset (25 Feb 2016)

jefmcg said:


> How did work that out?


15 signatures before it was closed.


----------



## jefmcg (25 Feb 2016)

deptfordmarmoset said:


> 15 signatures before it was closed.


Oops, a little missing word, and it changes completely the meaning of the sentence. 

Fixed above.

I wanted to know what makes @flake99please so sure that petition was raised by that FB user. I can't see any link between https://www.change.org/u/250671171 and https://www.facebook.com/maria.sutton.184

(yeah, the photo is from that FB page, but anyone could have stolen that and used it to create a Change.org profile)


----------



## flake99please (25 Feb 2016)

jefmcg said:


> How did you work that out?



A quick search on Facebook of the petitioners name, followed by a quick search of profile pictures. One of the images matches.


----------



## flake99please (25 Feb 2016)

jefmcg said:


> Oops, a little missing word, and it changes completely the meaning of the sentence.
> 
> Fixed above.
> 
> ...



That is indeed a possibility. Equally as probable as the girl in question creating the petition. Scrolling down the facebook profile does show that she has signed another petition using chnge.org in the past.


----------



## Globalti (25 Feb 2016)

Amazing, isn't it, what you can find out in this age of internet incontinence?

I was watching Crimewatch and a detective said of somebody they wanted to interview: "He doesn't use social media so he's proving difficult to find"!


----------



## deptfordmarmoset (25 Feb 2016)

jefmcg said:


> Oops, a little missing word, and it changes completely the meaning of the sentence.


And, in turn, I rearranged ''work that'' to ''that work'' without even noticing!


----------



## mjr (25 Feb 2016)

deptfordmarmoset said:


> And, in turn, I rearranged ''work that'' to ''that work'' without even noticing!


Exyliadics fo teh wordl untie!


----------



## jefmcg (25 Feb 2016)

flake99please said:


> That is indeed a possibility. Equally as probable as the girl in question creating the petition. Scrolling down the facebook profile does show that she has signed another petition using chnge.org in the past.


Well, if I was creating an account on a website to incriminate someone, the very least I would do is spell her name correctly, and steal a photo from her FB page.

Actually, this is an indication it's not her. According to https://www.change.org/u/250671171 she has had one action. So she created the petition using a different account than she used to sign the other one - signing a petition on change.org is "1 action". I assume creating one is also "1 action".

Disturbingly, I see on her FB that she has given a 5* review to a driving school https://www.facebook.com/godiamondschoolofmotoring/reviews


----------



## Lonestar (25 Feb 2016)

Cunobelin said:


> So you saw the lights, yet still ran into him and killed him?



It's hard to drive when you are half p1553d.(allegedly)


----------



## Paul99 (25 Feb 2016)

Lonestar said:


> It's hard to drive when you are half p1553d.(allegedly)



It's even harder when you are twice the legal limit (allegedly)


----------



## Drago (25 Feb 2016)

I'm sure the calibrated intoximeter isn't alleging thing - it's damn well saying it as it really is.


----------



## glenn forger (3 Jun 2016)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-36435543

*Lying hit-and-run driver jailed for cyclist's 'callous' death near Wallingford*

*




*


----------



## growingvegetables (3 Jun 2016)

For four years and 1 month. Out in two?


> Police said Dr Ruecroft might still be alive if she had stopped to help him.


----------



## slowmotion (3 Jun 2016)

Unbelievable.
How did she get nicked? She reported the car stolen, and then what? Kenneth Noye murdered another driver in a road rage accident and managed to get his Range Rover entirely "disappeared" by his pals before buggering off to Spain for a bit. I suppose Ms Sutton didn't have the nouse or the money.


----------



## lutonloony (3 Jun 2016)

It would be nice to think that she loses sleep every night over this, but I guess from her initial actions it won't happen


----------



## Firestorm (3 Jun 2016)

growingvegetables said:


> For four years and 1 month. Out in two?


35months and 14 months, they will probably be concurrent rather than consecutive, probably do no more than 18 months.
Does look like its the same person as the FB page found earlier in the thread.
In which case, she had only been driving for 2 years having taken 7 to pass here test (according to the FB post)


----------



## Brandane (3 Jun 2016)

What an utter POS..
She probably WILL be losing sleep while she convinces herself that she wouldn't be lying in prison "if only that cyclist had been wearing a helmet". Of course it had nothing to do with the fact that she was driving a car, badly, while pissed.
Edited as cross posted the concurrent/consecutive question with Firestorm.


----------



## EltonFrog (3 Jun 2016)

I'm pleased she didn't get away with it. It's a pity that one can't ask the Attorney general's office to review the sentence as being unduly lenient.


----------



## Arjimlad (3 Jun 2016)

Stupidly rubbish sentence as usual.


----------



## EnPassant (3 Jun 2016)

Firestorm said:


> 35months and 14 months, they will probably be concurrent rather than consecutive, probably do no more than 18 months.)


The first line from the bbc linky above says "A drink-driver who left a cyclist fatally injured and then reported her car stolen has been jailed for more than four years" so I'd assume consecutive. 

However, further down it states: "She was twice over the prescribed alcohol limit at the time of the collision." (as opposed to_ proscribed_) maybe the maths is no better than the spelling. Or perhaps there are some doctors with particularly questionable ethics in the Oxford area?
Tch tch, the BBC is slipping.

Whatever, it's not long enough in my view particularly given her despicable behaviour after the event. The maximum appears to be 14 years (http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/fact_sheets/dangerous_driving/), and she gets just under 3? 
Difficult to speculate on what one would need to do to get closer to the maximum without getting emotive about it (which is somewhat hard to do in this case) racing whilst drunk perhaps? My imagination isn't up to the task beyond that. It does seem a long way below what she could have got.


----------



## growingvegetables (3 Jun 2016)

Reaction of the victim's brother and update on the petition to Gove


----------



## Ajax Bay (3 Jun 2016)

EnPassant said:


> "She was twice over the prescribed alcohol limit at the time of the collision." (as opposed to_ proscribed_) maybe the maths is no better than the spelling.


The limit is prescribed. Being over the limit is proscribed. So maybe their use of English is up to your high standard (even if you don't realise).


----------



## EnPassant (3 Jun 2016)

Thank goodness for that, the bbc is better than me after all. I did wonder after I hit post, but not enough to check


----------



## hatler (3 Jun 2016)

EnPassant said:


> Whatever, it's not long enough in my view particularly given her despicable behaviour after the event. The maximum appears to be 14 years (http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/fact_sheets/dangerous_driving/), and she gets just under 3?
> Difficult to speculate on what one would need to do to get closer to the maximum without getting emotive about it (which is somewhat hard to do in this case) racing whilst drunk perhaps? My imagination isn't up to the task beyond that. It does seem a long way below what she could have got.


But that's dangerous driving referred to there. She was convicted of causing death by careless driving (heaven help us).


----------



## jefmcg (3 Jun 2016)

hatler said:


> But that's dangerous driving referred to there. She was convicted of causing death by careless driving (heaven help us).


Not according to the bbc


> She was jailed for 35 months for causing death by dangerous driving and 14 months for perverting the course of justice. She was also disqualified from driving for eight years.


----------



## EnPassant (3 Jun 2016)

hatler said:


> But that's dangerous driving referred to there. She was convicted of causing death by careless driving (heaven help us).


Well, unless I've managed to make 2 errors in one post (not even close to a record), I did check that: From the link above scroll to the bottom section regarding penalties and the penalty for "careless driving _when under the influence of drink or drugs"_ is the same maximum as dangerous driving.


----------



## glenn forger (3 Jun 2016)

growingvegetables said:


> Reaction of the victim's brother and update on the petition to Gove



Holy cow, that 999 recording. She's a special person, this Maria.


----------



## hatler (3 Jun 2016)

jefmcg said:


> Not according to the bbc


Oooo. That's weird. I got the careless thing from one of the local rags.


----------



## hatler (3 Jun 2016)

hatler said:


> Oooo. That's weird. I got the careless thing from one of the local rags.


Here 'tis - http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/14...ford_scientist_by_dangerous_driving/?ref=ebln



> Sutton, of Ottery Way, Didcot, was handed a 35-month prison sentence for causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed limit and 16 months for perverting the course of justice. She was also banned from driving for eight years.


----------



## glenn forger (3 Jun 2016)

> But Judge Peter Ross said her attempt to pervert the course of justice did not stop there, because when police seized her phone Sutton deleted the text messages by logging into the handset through an iPad.



http://www.heraldseries.co.uk/news/...say_grieving_family___listen_to_her_999_call/


----------



## hatler (3 Jun 2016)

EnPassant said:


> Well, unless I've managed to make 2 errors in one post (not even close to a record), I did check that: From the link above scroll to the bottom section regarding penalties and the penalty for "careless driving _when under the influence of drink or drugs"_ is the same maximum as dangerous driving.


Aha ! That makes sense.


----------



## J1888 (3 Jun 2016)

Unbelievable - cannot fathom how she made that phone call lying about her car being stolen having just knocked someone down


----------



## steve292 (3 Jun 2016)

Have you all signed the petition? You can get to it via here- https://www.change.org/p/micheal-go...wW3wbnLf0POeja7-u8&utm_source=petition_update


----------

