An Aberdeenshire man has been jailed for six years for mowing down another man while drunk and without a licence.
Steven Duthie, 32, from Fraserburgh appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh today having failed to appear for sentencing on Tuesday.
Duthie was re-arrested on Tuesday afternoon and was sentenced today.
On sentencing Lord Woolman said Duthie’s decision not to appear on Tuesday did him “little credit”.
He said: “After you were convicted in the High Court at Aberdeen, I granted you bail. That was a privilege. It was for the purpose of allowing the completion of reports while you were at liberty.
“The first sentencing hearing could not proceed, because you failed to attend an appointment to allow the Social Enquiry Report to be completed. Yesterday you failed to appear in this court. Your conduct in respect of these matters does you little credit.
In May last year, Duthie hit 22-year-old Richard Jones victim in a car owned by a friend on the B9033 Fraserburgh to St Combs Road, Aberdeenshire.
The two men had been drinking at a party earlier in the evening and had fought while being given a lift on the way home.
Following a six-day trial at the High Court in Aberdeen, Duthie was found guilty of death by dangerous driving while unfit to drive as a result of alcohol and was also found guilty of driving with no licence or insurance.
Lord Woolman described Duthie’s victim as, “a young man who stood at the door of his adult life”.
Lord Woolman added that he had taken into account that Duthie was not driving at excessive speed and was on the correct side of the road, but that fact, “does not explain how travelling at a relatively low speed you hit a man who was apparently trying to flag your car down for a lift.”
The court heard that Duthie kept ”reliving the disaster”. He also said via a letter read in court that, “If I could turn back the clock, then I would never have driven the car”.
Speaking outside the court, Richard Jones’s mother Betty Bullock said they did not accept Duthie’s apology to her family.
She said: “When he walked out of that court room when he’d been sentenced and to me he showed no remorse. No reaction whatsoever.
“As for sleepless nights, I hope he has many more of them because we’ve had the sleepless nights and the depression…I won’t accept his apology.
“Six years doesn’t seem a lot for someone’s life. He can be out within four years and get on with his life. His family and friend’s can go visit him inside. We’ve got to visit a graveside.”
Duthie was sentenced to six years in jail and disqualified from driving for ten years.
