A driver who killed her boyfriend in a crash while filming him hanging out of the car window has had her jail term increased.
Mia Howarth, now 21, has been a prisoner at HMP Low Newton in Durham since she was 18.
In 2023, she was behind the wheel in a crash which killed her boyfriend, Alfie Lovett, who was 17. He had been sitting on the frame of the open car window, the court heard.
Previously, Howarth was jailed for three years, but the Attorney General flagged the sentence as ‘unduly lenient’, and the case was referred to the Court of Appeal. That court increased the sentence to four and a half years on Friday.
Howarth had been at the wheel of a Peugeot 107 on a rural, single-carriageway North Yorkshire road with three 17-year-old male passengers listening to music on September 12, 2023.
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She lost control of the car while driving at 35mph and filming Mr Lovett on Snapchat.
She veered into a grass verge and crashed into a dry stone wall. Mr Lovett died at the scene. Howarth admitted causing death by dangerous driving at York Crown Court in March.
The Attorney General said the original sentence failed to adequately punish Howarth or act as a deterrent to further crime.
Lord Justice Popplewell, sitting with Mr Justice Linden and Mrs Justice Hill, said the sentencing judge was wrong to reduce the sentence because of poor conditions in UK prisons, and had reduced the sentence too much to reflect Howarth’s age.
The judge said: ‘We agree the judge fell into error in the way he applied a reduction for youth.’
During the hearing, Kelly Brocklehurst, representing the Attorney General, said: ‘We acknowledge there was a significant amount of mitigation, but ultimately it was a sentence that had to punish the offender and deter further acts.’
Glenn Parsons, representing Howarth, said the case was a ‘profound tragedy’ and Howarth’s grief was ‘overwhelming’.
He said she was ’embedded’ in the Lovett family and was a good influence on Alfie, who had become a father 12 weeks before his death.
He said the delay in charging Howarth was unacceptable as she had admitted killing Mr Lovett at the roadside. She also told police she had told the boys they must wear seatbelts and it would be ‘her fault’ if they took them off, the court heard.
The teenagers were on the way to Brinham Rocks, a National Trust site near Harrogate. Howarth appeared in court via video link from HMP Low Newton and sobbed during the hearing.
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