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Justice (Lonpicman, Wikimedia Commons)"Wholly and morally wrong": wife of cyclist killed by speeding driver says family are "traumatised" by lenient suspended sentence
After a judge handed David McSkimming a six month suspended sentence for hitting and killing Anthony Satterthwaite while speeding, Mr Satterthwaite's wife has now spoke of her fury at the leniency of the sentence.
As we reported on Saturday, McSkimming was driving his Porsche Boxter at 59mph in a 40mph zone when he hit the 51-year-old on the opposite side of the road after “rebounding” off a tree. The incident happened on Eastcote Lane, Solihull on 22nd December 2018, and McSkimming was sentenced on 4th September 2020 at Birmingham Crown Court. He was given a suspended six-month prison sentence and 250 hours community service after admitting causing death by careless driving.
Wendy Satherwaite commented: “The family had very justifiable expectations of a fair and honest sentencing decision in respect of a much loved and irreplaceable member of our family who was killed on 22 December, 2018.
"This did not happen. The judge handed out a totally inadequate sentence - six months, suspended for two years and 250 hours community service to a driver who killed a totally innocent cyclist in a most violent and cruel way.
“Anthony suffered horrendous injuries. All of this was deemed less important than the psychological effects on the Defendant’s son and his career. This decision has left the family totally traumatised and is one we cannot come to terms with.
“The sentence in our case was far too lenient and has left us feeling it was an insult to Anthony and all he had achieved in life and has totally destroyed our faith in the justice system. What kind of message does this paltry sentence send to others about death on the road? A flawed justice system has allowed McSkimming to walk free.”
She also added: "We feel that the justice system has failed Anthony and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.
“The sentence that was passed was wholly and morally wrong and the sad fact is, Anthony’s passing will be just another statistic of death on the road.
“The guidelines seem so inflexible for the victims. We had to read edited versions of our original Victim Personal Impact Statements with little justification.”
A spokesperson for Leigh Day Solicitors, who represented Mrs Satterthwaite and specialise in serious injuries caused to cyclists by motorists, said: “Our hearts truly go out to the family of Anthony Satterthwaite who lost his life whilst cycling.
“The family are understandably angered that our criminal justice system allows for such patently unjust sentencing where road traffic offences occur, particularly in cases like this where it is apparent to most people that the offence was so much more than any momentary lapse in concentration.
“Sadly, we see this all too often and it not hard to understand why families often feel that the justice system only compounds the devastation of losing a loved one, instead of offering some sort of comfort by handing down a punishment that at least attempts to reflect the seriousness of the offence. A serious re-consideration as to how such cases are prosecuted by the courts is long overdue.”
Jack has been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of the website including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named Editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master's degree in print journalism and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it's a long story).
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25 comments
So at what point does breaking the law whilst driving, in this case speeding go from careless to dangerous? If you're not speeding and not doing anything illegal and it happens I can kind of understand it being careless, you weren't taking appropriate care, but as soon as you're speeding that should be dangerous driving shouldn't it?
It would seem harsh if they were doing 42mph in a 40, a few mph can be a momentary slip, but 60 in a 40 is not in that territory
Being a white police officer with a pretty blonde widow, would help. If the driver is from a minority group, say .. oh, I dunno, from the Traveller community... well, it's definitely way past 'dangerous'.
A custodial sentence, even a 6 month one, was required- along with a driving ban of at least 5 years. That would have shown that sociey takes the offence seriously- admittedly this wasn't one of the 'didn''t see the cyclist, not my fault' examples. This was a 'didn't see the margin of the road and that massive tree and I had to speed because I was driving a fast car', which the police generally excuse as 'momentary loss of concentration so it's all right'. We don't know how hard it was prosecuted, but it looks more like a sentencing failure born of the 'making the driver suffer won't bring back the dead' dodge. CPS should appeal this joke sentence. We're all disregarding the community service-and we're quite right.
A terrible, avoidable accident.
With yet another sentence does not match the crime. I can't imagine how that poor family will come to terms with this, that their dads life was worth 250hours community service and what six months of walking about not commiting any more crimes, it's a joke.
If the family or friends want to set up a crowdfunder to appeal this extraordinarily lenient sentence, count me in for a few quid. Unless the system starts to take cyclists' deaths seriously, we are all more at risk.
Cyclists lives matter
Well done for upsetting Socraticycless.
Shocking lenience here - being as it was only tried as Death by Careless driving the maximum sentence was 5 years.
Going by the sentencing guidelines the judge appears to have classed this as as the "least worst" version of Death by Careless driving. Which on the surface appears to be a pretty poor decision.
https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/cau...
From "1. Identify the appropriate starting point"
"Careless or inconsiderate driving arising from momentary inattention with no aggravating factors"
(Side note - that table appears to have the middle column wrongly transposed. 15 vs 36 months )
The traumatised child was one of the mitigating factors of the sentecing even though the child wouldn't have been traumatised if his dad hadn't driven dangerously and killed someone in front of him. But as the wife pointed out, their traumatism doens't seem ot have been cared about. But I'm interested on the "career" angle she mentioned. Any one know on that one in any of the other reports?
I couldn't understand how the traumatisation of the passenger was cited as a mitigating factor. It should have been an aggravating factor.
There also should be a point at which speeding related offences are automatically prosecuted as dangerous rather than careless driving. Forty five mph in a Forty zone might be classed as careless, Sixty is plain madness.
It should definately have been classed as aggravating.
It is only deemed a mitigation if the passenger had been killed and was someone close to the defendant, hence the loss of that person causing the defendant suffering.
I wonder if the sentence can be appealed. I noticed this in the local news this morning - Isle of Wight car and bus crash death driver's sentence increased
So it seems like it should be possible.
Aside from the leniancy of the sentence in this case I wonder that, in general, sentencing can't be more creative. eg restict the size/bhp of the cars that the person is allowed to drive in future or insist that any car he drives is fitted with a black box and have a three strike policy on speeding. I know it's a compromise , but this would surely satisfy the idea that someone has a "right" to drive again whilst hopefully ensuring they do it relatively safely.
I was thinking the same thing. DVLA could create one more vehicle class on the driving licence, for low power vehicles with restricted acceleration and top speed. On completion of their ban, perps should be reissued with a different colour licence endorsed to drive this class only, and their details registered on a database, not unlike the DBS, so that they were unable to buy, sell, rent or insure any other type of vehicle. Naturally such vehicles would not light the fires of petrolheads, so they would need to find some other outlet in which to invest their misguided sense of self-worth and identity.
Already exists; they're called quadricycles eg Renault Twizy, and the Aixam range. Top speed 45km/h (28mph).
I see one of those in the mornings sometimes. Painted black, with a Batman symbol on the back...
Yes but no. Only if the creativety can be done to similar or lesser levels of cost to implement and police compared to "normal" sentencing.
Sentencing needs an well overdue overhaul. This individual had clearly proven he is not fit to drive a car. Lifetime ban. This would send the correct message to all those others who have no consideration of human life. I cannot begin to imagine the trauma the victims family are going through. So angry.
Except, it wouldn't. Who is going to see and be chastened by the sight of this chap on the bus? No one. However, if there were a few more deeply undesirable asthmatic 700cc cars pottering about, people just might pause to reflect that such is the fate of those who drive like this idiot did (see my earlier post).
I don't disagree that they fully deserve to lose their licence altogether, but I accept that the arguments about livlihood are always likely to prevail.
And painted a fetching shade of pink perhaps? Or maybe with prison uniform stripes?
Reports indicate that McSkimming is an ex-RAF pilot. Would this have impacted on his sentence? Possibly I think. He would be classed by the court as an upstanding member of society & hence worthy of the benefit of doubt.
For me, the fact that he is an ex-RAF pilot makes it worse. He, more than anyone, should know about piloting a vehicle safely and according to the conditions.
What a monumental fail by the court. No suspended sentence. A lifetime ban.
Well, we do seem to heading towards the American model of overblown military fetishism so I suspect you may be correct. Nonetheless it's a ludicrous sentence. Not that it will mean anything to the family but hopefully a private prosecution will leave the offender financially ruined. Disgusting.
OT but I wonder how that's going to develop, going forward, given that their President allegedly thinks any military personnel who's injured or captured is a "loser" and (again, allegedly) couldn't see why any military personnel might go into a war because "what's in it for them?".
So his reaction times and judgement would be impeccable...............had he been paying attention. However it was just a cyclist that he killed so there is no need to make a fuss.