Lorry accident dad discharged over daughter's death

1:36pm Friday 16th May 2008

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A dad who allowed his 12-year-old son to drive the skip lorry that crushed his two-year-old daughter has been given an absolute discharge.

Gary Collier, 39, admitted the manslaughter of daughter Crystal after allowing his children to wander freely around his waste disposal yard Feltham.

Judge David Paget QC took pity on the devastated dad after hearing how he visited daughter Crystal Collier's grave every day and gave him a three-year community order.

But after complying with psychiatric assessments over the last 18 months, Collier was today released from the conditions so that he could "put matters behind him".

"I can see the advantage of bringing the matter to a close," Judge Paget said.

"The only aim of this order was to help him. I can quite understand that time has moved on.

"He is clearly not going to commit further offences of this kind ever again. This was a unique event.

"I revoke the order. I substitute it, in this tragic and sad case, for an absolute discharge.

"I think it would be good conceptually for him to put this matter behind him. I hope he can make progress in the future."

The accident happened on July 5, 2005 when Collier let his son, Gary Collier Junior, get behind the wheel of his skip lorry.

Collier put Crystal down on the ground and the toddler walked in front of the truck as it lurched forward.

Witnesses at the Bedfont Trading Estate screamed and shouted as the lorry knocked her down.

Collier broke down as he was taken to hospital with his daughter's body and sobbed: "You don't know the half of it. It was my own boy that did it. It was my own lorry that did it."

Manslaughter by gross negligence is usually met with a prison sentence.

But in November 2006, Judge Paget said the case was "wholly exceptional" after hearing how Collier's mental health had deteriorated since Crystal's death.

In the months following the death Collier had visited the cemetery daily, leaving only to eat and buy flowers.

Collier told doctors said he would kill himself as soon as he had found a headstone for his daughter and psychiatrists found he was at high risk of suicide if sent to prison.

The court heard how Collier had let his son drive a Peugeot car around the yard and his daughter was often seen in the entrance where trucks and HGVs drove in and out.

Gary Collier Junior had been permitted to turn on the engines on the yard to start up their air tanks.

Prosecutor Richard Whittam said it had been "an accident waiting to happen".

Judge Paget said Collier's punishment had been the loss of his daughter.

Collier, of Gloucester Crescent, Laleham, pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter just before he was due to go on trial in September 2006 after previously claiming he was too depressed to give instructions to his solicitors.

Collier had three sons from a previous relationship before he met Crystal's mother Louise - who already had two daughters.