Croydon man jailed for killing of 14-year-old

Croydon Crown Court

A speeding driver from Croydon has been jailed today for eight months after admitting to the killing of a teenage girl last year.

John Page, 35 from Underwood, Fieldway was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court after pleading guilty to causing death by careless driving.

Page was also found guilty of driving without insurance, which he received a six month sentence, with it to run concurrently aswell as being disqualified from driving for two years.

Landscape gardener, Page was recorded travelling at 43 mph in 30 ph zone when he hit 14-year-old Lillian Groves outside her home in Headley Drive, New Addington, last year.

Judge Stephen Waller said: “You were a local man and knew fully well you should not have been driving as fast as you were. This was a very sad case and there is no sentence I can pass which is going to reduce the family’s pain.

“I take the view, having considered all the evidence, that at the time you were driving too fast as you must have known because you were showing off this car.”

Lillian, who attended Addington High was described by her mother as her “little princess” and was honoured on the anniversary of her death by a memorial service last month where 150 people gathered outside her home and eleased balloons.

Michaela Groves, Lillian’s aunt, told the Croydon Advertiser: “It was nice to see so many people standing by our side.

“Sometimes it takes a tragedy or everyone to come together.”

Recently Fieldway councilors Simon Hall and Carole Bonner have asked for mobile speed checkers to be installed in Headley Drive in the hope of voiding further fatalities.

 

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  1. naidu December 5, 2011

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