Parents hit out on anniversary of Wirral teen's death

Aug 7 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

THE parents of a grammar school girl from Wirral killed by a drunk driver have spoken of their continued sense of injustice at the legal process on the first anniversary of her death.

Eluned Cleverley, an 18-year-old from Meols, died a year ago after being hit by a car which had been shunted by a van doing at least 50mph driven by a drunk driver.

Her mother Ann remains close to tears when talking about her bubbly and intelligent daughter who had just finished her A-levels at West Kirby Grammar school and was looking forward to starting an Arts Foundation Course.

But the grief and emotion still felt by Eluned’s family is tempered by the sense of injustice against a system which has spent more than £1m on the prosecution of their daughter’s killer.

The family had to pay for the cost of Eluned’s funeral and endure preparations for a trial before Lucasz Sonta, who crashed into the car while drunk, finally pleaded guilty.

Since the case last December he has also made attempts to appeal against his six year sentence.

Sonta, 25, a Polish carpenter living in Wirral, was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court for causing the death of Eluned by careless driving while under the influence of alcohol.

But Ann Cleverley said: “The pain and suffering does not go away, but there is also this huge sense of injustice.

“We have been told the cost of the original court case was around £1m, and he has also appealed since then with all those additional costs.

“My husband and I have worked since we left school and college and yet we have never been given any help.

“I want my daughter back – but that is never going to happen. But it feels that the whole system is weighted in this man’s favour.

“Even when we identified her body we were not allowed to touch her, and we could not see her again for almost three weeks – because he had the right to appoint his own pathologist and all they tried to do was prove Eluned had been drinking. But she hadn’t – they only found a trace of alcohol.”

Now Eluned’s parents, both originally from North Wales, hope to save enough for their daughter’s ashes to be exploded into the sky on a rocket, although the £2,000 cost means they expect to wait until what would have been her 21st birthday.

Mrs Cleverley said: “She just loved stars, and they can do something with a firework-type thing to make her go into the stars.

“It’s not something we would have thought of, but my nephew told us about a discussion they once had about what would happen to them when they die.

“Initially it’s something I couldn’t get my head around, but now I can accept she is no longer here. It’s expensive, though, so we thought perhaps we would wait until what would have been her 21st. And so far we have kept her ashes in our wardrobe.”

But the frustration for the family remains. While they deal with the fall-out of their loss, from taking counselling, to illness from stress and grief, they also have to continue their day-to-day lives.

They have received help from charitable organisations such as Roadpeace, Aftermath and the children’s counselling service Butterflies.

Yet the sense of injustice persists. Mrs Cleverley said she had not taken up any counselling, but her husband Edward has struggled to deal with what happened. Every other night he had picked Eluned up from wherever she called him, but that night he had not been able to.

She said: “There are so many ‘what ifs’. She was a sensible girl who was walking along the pavement.

“Since she was little we had laid down all the rules about staying safe. She had kept in touch with us that night. She was doing everything right.

“But there was no rule we could have made to keep her safe that night because she was doing everything she was supposed to. She only had another 50 yards to walk to her friend’s to call a taxi.”

liammurphy