Olivia-Violet Reeves: 10,000 sign petition demanding longer jail sentence for drink driver who killed 11-year-old
A petition calling for a review into the sentence handed to a drink driver who killed an 11-year-old schoolgirl has almost reached 10,000 signatures.
The petition was launched after Olivia-Violet Reeves’s family had a request to reconsider 77-year-old Roger Goodall’s four-and-a-half year sentence turned down.
The family said that the sentence given to Goodall, of The Mount, Shrewsbury, was too lenient, after he was jailed in September for causing Olivia-Violet’s death by dangerous driving.
But just days after they applied to appeal the sentence they learned they had been unsuccessful.
The case was reviewed by officials at the Attorney General’s Office, but decided not to refer it to the Court of Appeal for a new sentence.
The family said it had been “incredibly hard” dealing with Olivia-Violet’s death, and they were upset at the prospect of the man responsible for her death being released after what could be 27 months.
Olivia-Violet’s uncle, Simon Reeves, said that Goodall should have been given a level-one sentence, not a reduced level-two sentence for personal reasons.
More than 9,900 people from all over the country have signed the petition since it was launched by a friend of Olivia-Violet’s family just weeks ago.
Mr Reeves has said he hoped the petition would gain 100,000 signatures so the family can present it to MPs in the House of Commons. He also thanked those who had already signed the petition.
People have been signing the petition in Shropshire but also in areas such as Milford Haven in Wales, and Widnes.
In the petition, launched by Tracey Morgan, it says: “A four-and-a-half year sentence is an insult for taking a child’s life.
“The court has given Goodall a sentence of four and a half years, which is an insult to the memory of Olivia and a kick in the face of justice for her family.
“We desperately need to get this case reviewed for a much harder sentence for Goodall, a man whose actions so cruelly took the life of this beautiful little girl.”
Olivia-Violet, a pupil at St George’s School, Shrewsbury, was walking along Mytton Oak Road, Copthorne, in June when Goodall’s Range Rover mounted the pavement, hitting her at speed.
During the sentencing hearing earlier this year, the court was told that Goodall had not notified the DVLA about two previous occasions that he had blacked out in 2016 and that he should not have been behind the wheel that day.
Witnesses told the police that Goodall had veered to the wrong side of the road and mounted the pavement, striking a telegraph pole before hitting Olivia-Violet.
The court heard how Goodall, who also struck a lamp post, got out of the car and asked others what had happened. Before the police arrived, he asked witnesses whether he could leave the scene because he had been drinking.
In the driver’s door pocket of the Range Rover the police later found a bottle of flavoured water that had been filled with an alcoholic drink. At a police station, he gave a reading of 48 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
