"These are injuries that are not survivable"

Thursday 24 October 2024

A forensic pathologist and the woman who found father and son Dean and Charlie Lowe in the road following a fatal hit-and-run in Jersey last year were the latest to give evidence in the island's Royal Court trial of their killer.

Dylan John Pounds (29) has pleaded guilty to causing the deaths by careless driving, but prosecutors allege that he is guilty of the more serious charge of causing death by dangerous driving.

He has also admitted failing to stop and report an accident.

The trial opened on Monday, with Jersey's Royal Court shown footage of Charlie Lowe warning his father "imagine being hit by a drunk driver" just minutes before their deaths on Rue de Fauvic in Grouville.

On Tuesday, the Court heard from people who had seen Pounds in the pub before the incident. An eyewitness shared how he was "jovial", "jokey" and "very drunk" on the dancefloor in a pub just before the collision, and was "sloshing" a pint of beer around.

Pictured: Dylan John Pounds has admitted causing death by careless driving, but not the more serious charge for which he is on trial.

Amanda Fairnie was giving evidence on the third day of the trial via video link and recalled finding 48-year-old Dean Lowe and his 11-year-old son, Charlie, as she was driving along Rue de Fauvic on the evening of 5 August last year. 

She said she had to brake when she saw an obstacle in the road, instantly jumped out of the car and "ran straight over".

She sobbed as she recalled finding Charlie lying facedown, and trying to check if he was breathing – but he did not respond in any way.

Ms Fairnie said she then noticed Mr Lowe’s body, lying in a similar position, a little further up the road. He was also unresponsive.

“I tried to call the emergency services. It took me a couple of attempts because I was shaking," the witness recalled.

Dr Russell Delaney, a forensic pathologist with the UK Home Office, went to Jersey to examine the bodies of Mr Lowe and Charlie.

Pictured: The trial is due to last until next week.

Giving evidence, he explained the extent and severity of their injuries, which included fractured skulls and legs fractures.

He said Mr Lowe's injuries were "not survivable with any form of medical intervention", while of Charlie, he said: “He would have been instantly unconscious. Again, they are not injuries that you would have expected him to survive. I think he would have died quickly.” 

He said these injuries were entirely "in keeping" with a road traffic collision.

Photographs of Mr Pounds' work van – which he drove home after the incident – were shown in court.

It had large dents to the front and a shattered windscreen with a large hole in it.

Chris Hopkins, a vehicle examiner with Jersey's Driver and Vehicle Standards who checked the van afterwards, remarked that: “You couldn’t see out from the driver’s side at all, because of the opaque obstruction of the broken glass. It greatly reduced the driver’s visibility.”

Asked by Advocate Maletroit whether the van was unfit to be on the roads, he replied: “It goes beyond that. Any other road user would have been at risk of being cut or injured by that van being on the road at all.”

The trial is expected to conclude next week. Jersey's Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae is presiding, and Jurats Jane Ronge and Karen Le Cornu are sitting.