The wife of singer Rag'n'Bone Man crashed her Range Rover into a car carrying a mother and her three children while rushing to pick up her sons from school – leaving the family traumatised and a mother who had already lost her husband fearing her children would lose their only living parent.
On Monday, Zoe Graham, 38, was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, and banned from driving for a year after pleading guilty to causing serious injury by careless driving. She had initially been charged with the more serious offence of dangerous driving.
“Rag'n'Bone Man's wife Zoe Graham crashed into mother-of-three Samantha Keen while rushing for school run, sentenced to suspended jail term.”
Hove Crown Court heard that on August 9, 2023, Graham was running late to collect her sons when she attempted to overtake a slow-moving tractor on a “dangerous” stretch of road in East Sussex. She failed to see three cars in front of the tractor and, crossing double white lines to drive in the centre of the carriageway, crashed into a Ford car that was turning right.
The Ford was driven by Samantha Keen, a mother-of-three whose husband had died the previous year. She was taking her two daughters and son to an animal rescue centre near Ringmer when the Range Rover, travelling at around 55mph, struck her side-on.
Ms Keen suffered a broken ankle, cuts to her face and head, and damage to her right hip. Her three children suffered cuts and bruises to their faces, heads, arms and legs. In a victim impact statement, she said the crash had a significant impact on the family and still affected them nearly three years later.
“They thought they were going to lose their only living parent,” she said. “We had to cancel our holiday, losing our deposits. I was too injured to look after the children.”
The court heard Ms Keen was screaming in terror at the prospect of leaving her children without a parent, while her children were crying from shock. The family was left traumatised, with the children requiring counselling for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Graham, who married Rory Graham – known as Rag'n'Bone Man – in 2021, broke down in tears as she addressed the court. She told Judge David Rennie she had suffered nine years of domestic abuse from an ex-partner who had deliberately made her late to collect her children, leaving her with severe anxiety about being late.
“I was a little bit late to pick my boys, and they suffer from anxiety. I indicated and I hit her. I’ve never hurt anyone in my life and never would. I feel so sorry because my children went through anxiety as well,” she said.
Judge Rennie said the double white lines made it inherently dangerous to overtake, but told Graham: “I accept this is wholly out of character. All this was avoidable if you had driven in the way you were supposed to. I’m going to put you out of your misery – you’re not going to prison today.”
The judge concluded: “This is a horrendous case where two families have been left traumatised by events.”
Graham was warned that any breach of the suspended sentence could result in her being sent to prison.