A man has been jailed for the hit-and-run death of four-year-old Violet-Grace Youens in St Helens, Merseyside, after his speeding car mounted the pavement and struck her on 24 March.
Aidan McAteer, 23, fled to Amsterdam but later pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at Liverpool Crown Court. His passenger, Dean Brennan, 27, was jailed for six years and eight months after pleading guilty to aggravated vehicle taking and assisting an offender.
The court heard the stolen Ford Fiesta was driven at 80mph in a 30mph zone, through two red lights, before McAteer lost control on Prescot Road and hit a kerb, then crashed into Violet-Grace's grandmother Angela French, who had the child in her arms. Mrs French remains seriously injured in hospital.
After the crash, both men got out of the car and ran past the injured victims without stopping to help. McAteer was arrested at Manchester Airport the following day and told police he had gone to Amsterdam to 'smoke some weed'. Judge Denis Watson QC criticised their failure to summon aid, stating their thoughts were only for their own escape.
Violet-Grace's family paid tribute, with her father Glenn Youens reading bedtime stories to his daughter's ashes and her mother Rebecca saying: 'No sentence passed is ever going to bring Violet back and we are absolutely devastated.' The family also noted that Violet-Grace's organ donation had saved two other lives.
