A man who was driving without a licence and inhaled nitrous oxide before and after killing an 81-year-old cyclist at a pedestrian crossing has been detained for more than 11 years.
Cain Byrne, 20, jumped a red light at speeds significantly higher than the 50mph limit and hit Graham Slinn as he crossed the A57 near Todwick, South Yorkshire, on 4 April.
Sheffield crown court heard Byrne, who has never held a driving licence, made no attempt to stop and could have been travelling at up to 80mph, according to a witness.
On Monday he was sentenced to 11 years and six months’ detention in a young offender institution, with an extended licence period of five years. He was banned from driving for 17 years and eight months.
Byrne, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and other offences at a previous hearing. An earlier hearing was told Slinn had dismounted and was walking across the A57 when he was hit by a Volkswagen Golf driven by Byrne.
Byrne, who was carrying two passengers, then sped off, with dashcam footage showing his tyres smoking as he appeared to be trying to control the vehicle. Footage shown in court showed him inhaling nitrous oxide gas from a yellow balloon several times as he was driving, before and after the collision.
The court heard Slinn, a retired builder who helped care for adults with learning disabilities, was weeks away from celebrating his 60th wedding anniversary with his wife, Jaqueline.
In a statement, his wife said they had met through a love of cycling and that her husband rode his bike several times a week. He was also a keen singer who would perform in pubs and clubs in Sheffield, she said.
Sentencing Byrne, Judge Richardson KC said inhaling nitrous oxide was an “exceptionally dangerous act while driving”, and told the defendant that Slinn had “died of injuries inflicted by your truly appalling driving”.
The judge said Byrne “endured a dreadful upbringing” and “had known very few boundaries” in his life, but told the defendant: “You are a dangerous offender and the public must be protected from your evident dangerous and ingrained criminal behaviour.”
Byrne was due to be sentenced last month but, after hearing about his “astonishing and appalling” driving record, Richardson said he wanted a report prepared by probation officers. The court heard Byrne had convictions for 27 offences, including dangerous driving, despite having no driving licence.
Rebecca Stephens, defending, told the court her client drove off because he believed he had only hit another vehicle with his wing mirror.
After the sentencing, Slinn’s daughter Nicola, and son Victor, said the death of their “kind to his core” father was “100% avoidable”. They said cycling was his “lifelong passion and a shared family activity”, and that their father “always took safety incredibly seriously”.
“Despite taking every possible precaution to stay safe – dismounting at the end of the cycle path, waiting for the lights to change to green for pedestrians, and wheeling his bike across the pedestrian crossing – on the day he died, he was hit at speed by a car driven by someone who just kept going, as if our dad wasn’t even there, as if he was nothing,” they said.
“But he was there. He was everything to us. He was our dad, our mum’s husband of 60 years, a granddad to two teenage girls, and a friend to so many.”
In a statement released through Thompsons Solicitors, the family said: “To lose any loved one is a shock. But to lose someone so vibrant, so active, and to know their death was 100% avoidable is doubly cruel.”
