The Law Officers’ Department has liaised with an independent English QC after the family of the three-year-old labelled the sentence given to the driver of the van that ran him over as ‘unduly lenient’.
Rebekah Le Gal was banned from driving for 30 months and sentenced to an eight-month jail term, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to death by careless driving for running over Clinton in her VW van in Tunnell Street last year.
She had earlier been found not guilty of the more serious offence of death by dangerous driving in relation to her using a mobile phone in the lead-up to the incident.
A spokesman for the department said it had ‘carefully considered’ the sentence imposed by Jersey’s Royal Court. However, he added: ‘There were insufficient grounds to appeal the sentence to the Court of Appeal.’
This week Michael Pringle, Clinton’s father, was part of a group of campaigners that handed in a petition at 10 Downing Street calling for Theresa May’s government to take action on so-called shared road spaces. Tunnell Street is an example of this.
He used the opportunity to hand a letter to the PM’s office asking her to ‘exert some political pressure on the judiciary in Jersey to have the matter looked at again independently’.
Mr Pringle referred to the case of Jamie Leek, a nine-year-old who was killed after he was hit by a motorcycle in Zante.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron wrote to the Greek authorities urging them to speed up the prosecution. Soon after a trial date was set.
Spiridon Koklas, the motorcyclist, was eventually sentenced to four years and ten months in jail, suspended for three years.
In the letter, Mr Pringle also claims the Solicitor General, Mark Temple, was willing to accept Le Gal’s guilty plea to death by careless driving and was allegedly ‘reluctant’ to proceed with the trial for the more serious charge.
He wrote: ‘We don’t believe that the trial was fair or equitable, nor the sentence commensurate with the crime and have lost all faith in the justice system in Jersey.
‘I might add that the police did play their part in ensuring the matter went to trial, as the Solicitor General was very reluctant to proceed to trial despite compelling evidence provided by the investigating police officers.’
The JEP put the allegations made by Mr Pringle to the Law Officers’ Department. A spokesman said the Attorney General had corresponded with the father.
He added: ‘It is not the policy of the Attorney General to comment publicly on the details of criminal cases. As the Solicitor General told the Royal Court, the death of Clinton Pringle was a tragedy.’
Mr Pringle also had concerns as to why Jurats, appointed judges of fact, and not a jury sat for the trial. For statutory offences, such as driving cases, Jurats are always used.
