Cerys Edwards campaign: Government says it "can't afford" to change law

Oct 2 2009 EXCLUSIVE By Nick McCarthy

THE Government has told the campaigning parents of Cerys Edwards that it “can’t afford” to increase prison sentences for dangerous drivers.

It’s a bitter blow for the family of the Sutton Coldfield toddler who was left brain damaged, paralysed and unable to breathe without a ventilator by the speeding teenage son of a millionaire.

Today, her father Gareth described the news as “a kick in the teeth”.

More than 13,000 people signed up to the Birmingham Mail-backed Cerys Edwards campaign to demand tougher sentences for drivers like Antonio Boparan, who served just six months in prison for inflicting the catastrophic injuries on the then one-year-old.

The Ministry of Justice has told the family that it did not change dangerous driving laws recently because it was not “affordable” and added that increased sentences would now be too expensive for the “rapidly increasing prison population”.

Cerys was severely injured when millionaire’s son Boparan smashed head on with the family car in November 2006. Boparan, of Little Aston, Sutton Coldfield, was jailed for 21 months after being convicted of dangerous driving, but he was released after just six months. If Cerys had died he would have faced up to 14 years in prison. Two months ago, the Mail joined Cerys’s mum Tracy and Gareth who met Justice Minister Claire Ward and Transport Minister Paul Clark at Westminster when they handed over the petition.

The ministers, who were shown graphic photographs of Cerys’s injuries in hospital immediately after the crash, admitted that they had been “moved” by her story and assured the family that Justice Secretary Jack Straw would be briefed about the huge public response.

But, today the family have been told, via their lawyer, that nothing will change.

Gareth, aged 44, said: “How many times does this have to happen before things change?