Jail for policeman who killed grandmother in 100mph patrol car dash to deliver sister's 18th birthday card - another case of a police officer thinking is was above the law

Published 27th Oct 2009

A policeman who killed a grandmother during a 100mph 'hair-raising joyride' in a patrol car was jailed for six and a half years yesterday.

Malcolm Searles, 24, repeatedly broke the speed limit after being given permission to leave his police station to deliver an 18th birthday card to his sister Claire.

When he got to the birthday party, the newly qualified Metropolitan Police response driver treated his father and uncle to a 'white knuckle ride' with his Vauxhall Astra's blue lights flashing and siren sounding.

At one point, his vehicle's 'black box' recorder clocked him doing 104mph in a 40mph limit area. At another he was recorded doing 107mph in a 70mph zone.

London's Southwark Crown Court heard many of the roads he sped through were on 'densely populated' housing estates with young children playing on the pavements.

Finally, he headed back alone to the police station, continuing his 'prolonged course of dangerous driving lasting over an hour'.

It was then, just before 9pm, that he ploughed into Sandra 'Sandy' Simpson near her home in Bromley, South-East London as she set out to join her husband for a walk.

Seconds before, Searles had been travelling at 56mph - almost twice the speed limit - so that despite seeing the popular mother of three and trying to stop, he was still travelling at 30mph when he skidded into her.

Michael Mulkerrins, prosecuting, told the court: 'Had he been driving at the legal limit he would have been able to stop.'

He said Mrs Simpson, 61, died of head and chest injuries despite efforts by paramedics to save her.

As Searles was taken away in a police car for questioning, he told colleagues: 'I killed her. I am going to prison.' But later he tried to lie his way out of trouble, claiming he had been following a speeding car he believed had been stolen.

In a victim impact statement to the court, the woman's husband Peter Simpson - who contemplated suicide following the tragedy - said: 'Sandy was my whole world. In short, I've lost everything.

'We were born on the same day, met when we were 18 and have been together ever since - 43 years.'

Searles, from Swanley, Kent, pleaded guilty last month to one count of causing death by dangerous driving, one count of dangerous driving, and two counts of speeding on August 23 last year.

Yesterday full details of the crash were disclosed for the first time.

The court heard that despite defence suggestions that the victim had contributed to her death by emerging from behind a parked car, the reality was Searles was driving so fast along a road that featured a bend, a dip and a bridge she did not stand a chance.

The son-in-law of Sandra Simpson, Luke Brooks, gives a statement to the press following Searles' sentencing. Sandra's sons, Elliot (left) and Darren Simpson (second left), daughter, Natasha Brooks (centre), sister-in-law, Margaret Brooks (second right) and the Independent Police Complaints Commission's Commissioner Mike Franklin (right)

Sentencing, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin, QC, said the driving had been 'a dangerous and, indeed, if I may say so, a hair-raising joyride'.

He was then led to the cells as his parents and sister Claire sobbed behind the dock

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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