A trader spent £1,500 on dinner and champagne at a club before killing a 12-year-old girl in a car crash and fleeing the scene, a court heard.
Edward Tully, who admitted causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving, was jailed on Monday for 12 years and disqualified from driving for 13 years.
The 30-year-old had been out with friends at Proud Embankment, a cabaret bar, on the Victoria Embankment in central London on the night of the collision on Aug 20 2022.
He spent over £1,500 on four five-course meals with prosecco, as well as five bottles of Veuve Clicquot Rose champagne, before driving home in his Bentley at between 56 and 60 miles per hour – double the speed limit.
Tully overtook a car at a set of red lights at a junction in Barnet before striking the red Vauxhall Astra that the girl’s mother was driving. The Bentley then hit a post on a traffic island.
The crash sent the Astra spinning across the junction, leaving the girl unconscious and not breathing and her father badly injured – while her mother and brother screamed for help. The girl died in hospital two days later.
A witness described someone from the Bentley making a gesture as if to say “up yours”, the court heard.
Tully then fled the scene and walked back to his flat in Princess Park Manor. He then called his father, who picked him up from his flat in his black Nissan Navara.
After police officers repeatedly attempted to contact Tully, he handed himself in to a police station in Colindale the next day.
Defendant ‘seen drinking repeatedly’
Jocelyn Ledward KC, prosecuting, said: “As a result of the impact, the Astra spun clockwise 460 degrees across the junction, coming to rest in the southbound carriageway towards the north-east corner of the junction, and then rolling backwards at slow speed into the pedestrian barrier.
“The girl was not conscious. She was not breathing and clearly very badly injured. Her mother and brother screamed for help, and members of the public, including other drivers, came to their assistance.
“Whilst an ambulance was called, one of them used his tools to cut the girl’s seatbelt, removed her from the car and began CPR.
“Paramedics arrived, and she was resuscitated to the point her heart was re-started, but she remained unconscious and not breathing spontaneously. She was taken to the Royal London Hospital.”
Ms Ledward added: “Sadly, she had sustained brain and spinal injuries which were not survivable, as well as injuries to her lungs, liver, a fractured pelvis and two broken arms.”
The prosecutor said a receipt from the club revealed Tully “spent something of the order of over £1,500 in the club that night.”
Referring to CCTV from Proud Embankment, Ms Ledward said: “The defendant can be seen drinking regularly and repeatedly, over 20 times at least, from glasses which have been refilled from the bottles, including by himself, throughout the two hours.”
David Spens, KC, defending, said: “Mr Tully accepts full responsibility for her death.
“He is genuinely and profoundly sorry. While it may seem inadequate given the circumstances, he is profoundly sorry for the loss he brought to this family. He accepts that he deserves serious punishment.
“He left school at the age of 17. He built two successful businesses.”
‘Cowardly decision’
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the girl’s mother said: “My daughter was my best friend, we were very close to each other.
“I relive the incident. I get flashbacks of that night. I feel pain. I feel helpless. This incident has caused devastation to a happy family.
“This incident has taken everything away from us, everything.”
Judge John Lodge told Tully: “She was 12 at the time of her death. Anyone who had the privilege of listening to the victim’s personal statements will have heard so much about a young girl so full of life, who had already given so much in her childhood and, on the cusp of her teenage years, had so much more to give.”
The judge said Tully had been “impaired” by alcohol but added: “It is not known precisely how impaired by drink he was because he took the cowardly decision to flee the scene.
“He hit the family at excessive speed. The attitude of the defendant was ‘I am not going to stay here, we must run right now’ and he did.
“All the evidence points to significant consumption. The amount you spent speaks for itself, even in a group context.”
The judge added that those who had attempted to help Tully after the crash should “hang their heads in shame.”
Tully said “I love you” to his sobbing parents as he was jailed for 12 years and led from the dock.
