Malcolm Waite, 72, who was four times over the alcohol limit when he killed 20-year-old Fenella Hawes, could be released after serving just half of his seven-year sentence.
Details of the crash
Fenella was carrying sunflowers for her mother Margaret when Waite's car mounted the pavement and struck her on the Norfolk Broads. He was found slurring his words next to a half-drunk bottle of vodka and was jailed for seven years at Norwich Crown Court in November 2022.
Early release scheme
Under the new Sentencing Act, due in September, around 6,000 criminals were to be released early to reduce prison overcrowding. The scheme was paused by Andy Burnham after outrage that two of PC Andrew Harper's killers could be freed.
Burnham said: 'Keeping the public safe will always be my top priority. I am working closely with the new Justice Secretary and have instructed my team to put a pause on the changes that were due to start in September. No prisoners will be let out under this policy until we have conducted an urgent review and done everything we can to minimise risk to the public. Where changes are needed, we will not hesitate to make them.'
A Labour minister said the prime minister's review will be conducted in the 'coming days and weeks' and decisions need to be made 'very quickly'.
Family's reaction
Fenella's family said the thought of Waite back on the streets is 'petrifying' and called for any offender who caused a death to be exempt from early release. They told The Telegraph four years in prison is no 'equivalent to Fenella's life at all'.
Fenella's sister said: 'She was 20 years old and had a whole life ahead of her. It doesn't correlate. It's not a deterrent for anyone else to not drink drive because they can run someone over and only have to do four years for killing someone.'
In her victim impact statement, their mother Margaret said: 'Every day I sob, when I wake up, throughout the day at random times with seemingly no reason and when I go to bed at night. I picture her walking along, so happy carrying sunflowers for me and then being hit by the car. I sob because I will never see Fenella again. I will never see her radiant smile or hear her laugh. I will never talk with her about her day or about her plans for the future. I sob for the future that she doesn't have because a drunken man chose to get into a car, knowing that this was a weapon that could kill someone, and indeed it did. It killed my 20-year-old daughter. She was a young adult beginning her life and her bright future was taken out in a few seconds because of someone who did not think or did not care.'
