Taxi driver jailed for fatally wounding wife

11 Mar 2008
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/03/11/taxi-driver-jailed-for-fatally-wounding-wife-91466-20608123/
Taxi driver jailed for fatally wounding wife

A taxi driver who killed his wife by running her over following a quarrel in
his car was jailed for seven years today.

Andrew Erickson, 46, dragged his wife Fiona out of the vehicle after she
snapped off the rear view mirror and indicator arm while they were
parked on a roundabout, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

The court heard that Mrs Erickson had been so drunk she would have had
difficulty getting up off the road and her husband circled the roundabout
before driving over her body.

Erickson, of Banwell Court, Thornhill, Cwmbran, south Wales, pleaded
guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of provocation at an earlier hearing
after previously claiming it was an accident.

Winston Roddick QC, prosecuting, said that Erickson was seen driving over
his wife’s body by a fellow taxi driver who signalled to him to stop.

But, Mr Roddick said, Erickson drove home and put the broken mirror and
indicators in the glove compartment before changing his clothes, having a
cup of tea and a cigarette and calling a friend.

It is the prosecution’s case that he called a friend because he knew he was
in difficulty and wanted assistance in coming up with a plausible
explanation for running over his wife.

Erickson left a message saying: “I’m in s***, I’ve got a mega problem, I
think I ran Fiona over.”

He did not call the emergency services.

Mr Roddick said a number of drivers stopped to tend to Mrs Erickson while
she lay dying at the roadside, but it was too late.

The 47-year-old died of her injuries which included multiple fractures to
her ribs, limbs and pelvis.

“She had 69 distinct areas of trauma to her body,” Mr Roddick said.

He said the couple had been married for just over a year when the
incident happened, on July 7, at the roundabout in Cwmbran which joins
Henllys Way and Hollybush Way.

Mr Roddick said there was a history of marital problems on both sides
“often fuelled by alcohol and the heavy drinking of the deceased”.

There was also a history of violence on both sides, he said, but referred
the judge to documentation rather than revealing details to the court.

Mr Roddick said Erickson told police when he was arrested: “When I got in
I said ’that’s it I’ve had a f****** gutsfull, you’re out of the car’. Once she
started breaking the bits I thought ’that’s it you’re out of the car’.”

Erickson told officers: “It just gets on your nerves. Got a damaged car and
got a damaged house and it happens on a regular basis.”

Mr Roddick said Mrs Erickson started drinking more heavily after the
suicide of her mother and that her conduct had a “drip, drip” effect on the
defendant.

He said: “We are not dealing with a single act of provocation, we may be
dealing with provocation over a long period so that on the day not much
would have been required to push him over the edge.”

Mr Roddick said that on the night of the incident, the couple had been out
drinking with two friends.

The amount of alcohol they had drunk would have affected the ability of
both to control their emotions and possibly Mrs Erickson’s ability to stand,
he said.

He said Erickson lost his temper and pulled his wife out of the driver’s door
hands and head first.

Erickson would then have needed to aim his car to hit his wife as she was
lying partly on the kerb, he said.

Mrs Erickson’s daughter, Donna Knowlton, described her as a “warm and
loving person” as she read a victim impact statement to the court.

She said what happened to her mother would haunt the family for the rest
of their lives.

And she said she would never forget the “terrible injuries” to her mother’s
face when she went to identify her body.

She described Mrs Erickson as a shy person but someone who still
managed to make lots of friends.

John Jenkins QC, defending, told the court Erickson had served in the
Army for six years before becoming a taxi driver and had previously been
recognised for saving the life of a young woman in a fire.

He said he had three daughters aged 19, 14 and 13 from a previous
marriage and that the two eldest children had chosen to live with him and
still supported him.

Mr Jenkins said the police had been called to the home address by
Erickson and his daughters on nine occasions between February 2004 and
May 2007, “many of them plainly related to complaints of serious drinking
by the deceased”.

By the summer of 2007, he said, “the relationship was in a precarious
state”.

Mr Jenkins added that, ironically, the week before Mrs Erickson’s death the
couple had been getting on well.
He said Erickson was still unable to confront what he had done and
suffered a “breakdown of emotion” every time he had a consultation with him.

Sentencing Erickson, the Recorder of Cardiff Judge Nicholas Cooke QC
said he was satisfied the provocation arose from an accumulation of
frustration and anger that led to his loss of control.

But he said he could not accept the damage to Erickson’s car as being
provocation of a high order, whatever the background.

The judge said: “You knew that the deceased had a drink problem and
therefore she was someone to be helped and pitied rather than someone
with whom to be angry.”

He said: “This was a brutal killing. There is also something particularly
startling and frightening about the use of a motor car as a weapon since
motor cars are available so widely, though happily are seldom so used.”

He added: “I cannot overlook the fact this is not one of those cases where
someone whose caused a death has been quickly overcome by remorse
and regret at the magnitude of what they have done.

“In your case there is considerable indication that your primary concern
was to perpetuate the lies that this was an accident.”

The judge disqualified Erickson from driving for seven years and ordered
that the car be forfeited.

Her own fault for damaging his Mao'ar init?

What a horrible shitty little man, makes you think that was a "fit a proper person" to do da job we do?