Mother and partner convicted of helping killer flee after Coventry crash
Ashley Donald fled the country following the fatal collision on Grosvenor Road in 2022
The mother and the partner of a man who murdered a father when he ploughed into him in a car in Coventry, have both been convicted of trying to help him evade capture.
The women both helped the killer Ashley Donald, flee the country two days after the fatal collision in Grosvenor Road in 2022.
Donald was driving a silver Mondeo when he deliberately went the wrong way up the one-way street and hit Andrew Flamson as he walked his dog just before 11pm on 12 July.
Mr Flamson, who was 40, died three days later in hospital having suffered fatal head injuries.
Donald's mother Faye Gowdy and his partner Bethany Donohue, then provided money and bought tickets as he fled to Ireland in an attempt to avoid justice.
Investigators at West Midlands Police used detailed phone work, CCTV analysis and scrutinised bank transactions to plot what was happening.
Within hours of the collision, Donald had contacted both his girlfriend and his mum who transferred money to Donahue who then brought two ferry tickets to Ireland.
On 19 July, officers arrested Gowdy at home in Edgbaston and when Donohue landed back in the UK at Birmingham Airport on the same day, she too was detained.
Officers also started the process to extradite Donald from Ireland but he returned to the UK in September and handed himself in at Coventry Police Station.
Following a trial in May last year, Donald was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 23 years after being convicted of Mr Flamson's murder.
Three other men who were also in the car at the time were convicted of manslaughter and were each jailed for between 12 and 15 years.
Gowdy, aged 44 of Carpenter Road, Edgbaston, and Donohue, aged 23, of Albany Road, Coventry, were both convicted of assisting an offender on Monday (July 1).
They are due for sentence on 12 August at Leamington Crown Court.