A CrossFit athlete who repeatedly drove over a vulnerable man lying in the road, dismissing him as a 'smackhead' as he lay dying under her car, has been jailed for six years.
Megan Murphy, 26, spent just three seconds trying to clear ice from her windscreen in the early hours of 9 January last year before driving the wrong way down a one-way street near her former home in Marsh Green, Wigan. Darryl Tomlinson, 31, who lived around the corner, had collapsed in the middle of the carriageway after an evening out drinking with friends. Murphy drove over him, then reversed and ran over him again.
“CrossFit trainer Megan Murphy jailed for six years for driving over and killing a man while her windscreen was iced over.”
Straight afterwards, she lied to police, saying 'I didn't see him', before telling a friend she had just 'reversed over him'. While Tomlinson remained trapped beneath her vehicle, a court heard she called him a 'smackhead'. Residents had spotted Tomlinson and contacted 999, but 'in an awful twist of fate', neither police nor paramedics 'could find the patient and never attended the scene'. He died in the street.
Sentencing Murphy at Bolton Crown Court on June 24, the Recorder of Bolton, Judge Nicholas Clarke KC, told her: 'CCTV footage records you for three seconds attempting to defrost your windscreen. This was hopelessly inadequate. The other windows remained opaque and the windscreen was still completely covered with thick ice. You were driving blind. That is in and of itself – dangerous. You deliberately chose to drive when you could not see properly. You deliberately drove the wrong way down a one-way street.'
Murphy, now of Lord Street, Ince, had previously admitted causing death by dangerous driving. Her barrister, John Dove, said she had no previous convictions and an unblemished driving history. 'Quite frankly she is devastated to find herself in this situation, particularly in such life changing circumstances. To say she is a broken woman is an understatement,' he told the court.
Dove explained that Murphy was travelling slowly and initially halted in front of Tomlinson, believing something had fallen from a construction site or that she had struck a kerb. 'At this point, in a state of panic, she continued to drive her vehicle forwards. In a state of panic there were two further manoeuvres. When she initially opened the door, she looked down and she noticed fur beneath her. She thought she had come into contact with an animal before she discovered she came into contact with Mr Tomlinson. She accepts all of those actions were wrong.'
He added: 'She also made a comment about the demeanour of Mr Tomlinson. Miss Murphy regrets making that comment and she wishes to apologise for that comment made whilst in a highly stressed state.' The judge was unswayed, handing down a six-year prison term for a death that might have been prevented had emergency services been able to find the fallen man.