Daughter Charlotte's 3 Year Wait For Justice

- 23 September 2008;www.kentnews.co.uk

Daughter Charlotte's 3 year wait for justice

Today's ruling that the speeding police driver was 100 per cent responsible for Rachel Cheesewright's death has taken three years.

Her grieving family never doubted the police driver was going too fast for the conditions.

Whatever the emergency to which the police were called, a trained driver should be able to stop within the distance he can see.

Sirens and lights are there to assist progress through traffic, not a device that magically clears the way for speeding officers. In this case on their way to a domestic incident 15 miles away in Teterden.

On the night of October 22, 2005, pretty young mum Rachel Cheesewright finished her regular shift at the Bonny Cravat pub in Woodchurch, where she worked as a barmaid, and got into her car.

Miss Cheesewright, 29, was a woman known to her friends for her bubbly personality, “like a bottle of freshly opened Champagne” her father Tony would later say; a popular figure who had plans to marry the following year to long-term partner Lewis Whitehead, and a devoted mother to then eight-year-old daughter Charlotte.

Born in London, her family had moved to Ospringe, near Faversham when she was little. Subsequently, Rachel moved to the pretty village of Boughton Aluph on the outskirts of Ashford before moving to Kennington.

Yet within minutes of leaving the pub, the lives of everyone who knew Miss Cheesewright would be forever scarred.

As she made her journey home to Kennington, Miss Cheesewright waited at the junction turning on to the A28 near Bethersden. When it seemed to be clear she pulled out.

Yet at that moment a police patrol car, responding to a domestic incident in Tenterden rounded the corner at a speed in excess of 100mph. Miss Cheesewright did not stand a chance.

The police car, despite braking, collided with her Ford Fiesta with such ferocity it sliced her car in half, killing her instantly.

It would start a period of extreme trauma for all involved. Her daughter deprived of her mother.

Her parents trying to pick up the pieces. A fiancé switching from wedding plans to funeral arrangements.

By April the following year, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed there would be no criminal charges brought against the officer behind the wheel – PC William Purse. An investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) concluded there would be no further action.

An inquest in January of this year concluded the death had been ‘accidental’ but raised key issues over the safety of police driving in responding to calls.

Her family refused to accept the police were not to blame. Their argument simple; speeding at 100mph on country lanes gave their daughter no chance.

Then last year they opted to bring a civil case against Kent Police; a last throw of the dice to bring justice and brought in the name of little Charlotte Cheesewright – now 11; the result of which was delivered, where the case had been heard, at Canterbury County Court.

http://www.kentnews.co.uk/kent-news/Background-to-Rachel-Cheesewright-tragedy-newsinkent16376.aspx?news=local