Longer jail term for driver who killed boyfriend

A driver who killed her teenage boyfriend in a car crash has had her jail term increased by a year and a half.

Mia Howarth, now 21, filmed 17-year-old Alfie Lovett hanging out of her car's passenger window while she was driving in North Yorkshire on 12 September 2023.

York Crown Court heard in March she then lost control of her Peugeot 107, causing it to veer off the road and crash into a wall near Brimham Rocks, killing Lovett.

Howarth admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for three years, but the Attorney General said the term was "unduly lenient" and referred the case to the Court of Appeal, where judges on Friday increased it to four and a half years.

The defendant, of Cooperative Street in Horbury, who was 18 years old at the time of the crash, was driving at 35mph (56km/h) along the rural road while carrying three 17-year-old male passengers and listening to "thumping music", the court had heard.

After colliding with the dry-stone wall, Lovett, from York, was caught between the wall and the vehicle and died at the scene despite passers-by attempting CPR.

The Attorney General had said Howarth's original sentence had failed to adequately punish her or act as a deterrent to further crime.

At the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Popplewell, sitting with Mr Justice Linden and Mrs Justice Hill, said the sentencing judge was wrong to reduce the sentence because of poor conditions in UK prisons, and had reduced the sentence too much to reflect Howarth's age.

Popplewell said: "We agree the judge fell into error in the way he applied a reduction for youth."

There was also limited mitigation in a delay before Howarth was charged, he said.

During the hearing, Kelly Brocklehurst, representing the Attorney General, said: "We acknowledge there was a significant amount of mitigation, but ultimately it was a sentence that had to punish the offender and deter further acts."

Glenn Parsons, representing Howarth, said the case was a "profound tragedy" and Howarth's grief was "overwhelming".

He said she was "embedded" in the Lovett family and was a good influence on Alfie, who had become a father 12 weeks before his death.

Parsons said the delay in charging Howarth was unacceptable as she had admitted killing Lovett at the roadside.

Howarth also told police she had told the boys they must wear seatbelts and it would be "her fault" if they took them off during the drive to Brimham Rocks, a National Trust site near Harrogate, the court heard.

Howarth appeared in court via video link from HMP Low Newton near Durham and sobbed during the hearing.

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