Drink driver jailed after hitting and killing pedestrian in Stalham

He'll spend eight years behind bars and has been disqualified from driving for seven years

68 year old Malcolm Waite
Author: Matt SoanesPublished 19th Nov 2022

A Norfolk drink driver has been jailed for eight years after his car mounted a pavement and hit a pedestrian, killing her.

Malcolm Waite, 68, of Meadow Drive in Hoveton, was also handed a seven year driving ban at Norwich Crown Court.

He was behind the wheel of a car that hit and fatally injured 20 year old Fenella Hawes on the A149 in Stalham on July 31.

His silver Lexus RV also hit a 16 year old girl between the B1159 junction and Chapel Field Road at around 4:30pm.

The teenager escaped with cuts and bruising.

The court heard how Waite hadn’t stopped his car after hitting Fenella and the teenage girl but instead continued along the A149 for another mile.

He only stopped after hitting a road sign and trees, coming to a stop just before the Old Market Road junction.

He was discovered by officers still sitting in his car. After being treated in hospital he was recorded of having 120 micrograms of alcohol in his breath, which is around four times the drink drive limit.

In her victim personal statement, Fenella’s mother Margaret said: “Every day I sob, when I wake up, throughout the day at random times with seemingly no reason and when I go to bed at night."

"I picture her walking along, so happy carrying sunflowers for me and then being hit by the car. I sob because I will never see Fenella again, I will never see her radiant smile or hear her laugh, I will never talk with her about her day or about her plans for the future, I will never help cheer her up when she is sad or gossip with her, I will never go on long walks with her again…I will never be able to sit with her in front of our fire…it will never be the same again.

“I sob for the future that she doesn't have because a drunken man chose to get into a car, knowing that this was a weapon that could kill someone, and indeed it did it killed my 20-year-old daughter.

"She was a young adult beginning her life and her bright future was taken out in a few seconds because of someone who did not think or did not care.

"I sob because she was so happy: she was so lovely inside and out she was so alive and now she isn't here, and never will be again. I never had a chance to say goodbye.”

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.