‘What kind of justice is this?’ - Five year sentence for Stroud killer driver Daryl Ackland ‘an insult’ to victim’s family

Last Thursday Daryl Ackland was given a total sentence of five years and four months for causing death by dangerous driving and for a string of previous drug offences, and banned from the road for six years.

Jailing Ackland, Judge Jamie Tabor QC told him that his much-loved victim, cabinet maker and craftsman Mr Marchant, was “10 times the man you will ever be”.

“You killed him quite accidentally but through sheer recklessness,” he told the court. “It was due to your own selfishness, pursuing your own lifestyle addicted to drugs and not caring at all for your fellow human beings.”

However, many in the community criticised the length of the sentence, saying that Ackland could be back on the streets of Stroud in around two-and-a-half years.

“Scathing remarks, but a pathetic decision,” one SNJ reader said, while another added: “What a joke, he’ll be out in two years if he’s good. What an insult to the grieving family.”

Another said: “He was on bail, being chased by police and then killed an innocent man and he only gets five years. It’s disgusting how anybody can think that’s long enough.”

“Maximum sentence for death by dangerous driving is 14 years, what do you have to do to get this?” asked another reader.

One said: “That sentence is a joke and disrespect”, and another added: “What kind of justice is this? It teaches other people that basically it doesn’t matter how you treat other people. You can have no respect for others lives.”

Mr Marchant, 71, a keen mountaineer who was planning to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with his son, was cycling in Bisley Road on October 27 last year when he was hit by a Saab car being driven by Ackland.

Ackland, of Target Close in Stroud, was on bail for earlier offences of driving under the influence of illegal drugs and possessing heroin at the time. He was also driving without insurance in the borrowed car.

When he crashed into Mr Marchant he was trying to get away from police who had seen him at the wheel a few moments earlier.

Mr Marchant, who was riding an electrically-assisted bike, was described by Judge Tabor as an exceptional man who lived by the motto ‘Do ordinary things extraordinarily well’.

The judge told Ackland: “He was a married man with grown-up children. He was an exceptionally hard working man who had worked 60 hours a week for most of his life until he retired in 2015. He was a highly skilled cabinet maker and he also made musical instruments. He was a mountaineer, an artist, a photographer with a love of wildlife.

“He was a very active man, extremely fit for his age. He was planning to cycle to Cambridge to see a friend that weekend.

“He was 10 times the man you will ever be. You killed him quite accidentally but through sheer recklessness.

“It was due to your own selfishness, pursuing your own lifestyle addicted to drugs and not caring at all for your fellow human beings.

“You were on bail to this court for serious driving offences at the time you killed Joe Marchant.

“On the day in question you had been out buying crack cocaine and you no doubt knew you were uninsured in that car but didn’t care.

“You became aware the police were interested in you and you decided you had to get away.”

The judge said he knew the junction where Ackland turned into Bisley Road and it was a dangerous one at the best of times but he took it with extreme recklessness.

“You were then driving far too fast for the conditions,” he added. “You were doing 40mph – twice the speed that was safe for that road.

“You were so intent on evading the police that you never saw Mr Marchant at all. You went straight into him and you wiped him out.

“Then, worst of all, you ran off, leaving him dying by the side of the road.”

Ackland admitted causing death by dangerous driving and having no insurance. He also admitted that six months earlier, on April 16, he drove a Vauxhall Corsa in Tredworth Road, Gloucester, with excess levels of cocaine in his system.

He also admitted possession of £15 worth of cocaine in three wraps in a Kinder Egg case which he hid up his back passage.

Prosecutor Janine Wood said the fatal crash happened at 2.35pm, shortly after a police patrol driver had seen Ackland driving the Saab with three passengers.

Suspecting he had no insurance, the police car pulled up behind Ackland when he stopped outside a shop in Bisley Old Road and went inside.

When Ackland resumed driving the police followed with their siren going but Ackland accelerated and, at the junction of Hollow Lane and Bisley Road, the officers stopped following due to the risk to the public of a collision.

Pedestrian Christian Hayward said he noticed Ackland going too fast and swerving past a woman with crutches who was crossing the road. He seemed to make no attempt to slow down and then hit Mr Marchant.

Another witness, David Ballinger, who was sitting in his car, said he felt his vehicle rock as Ackland sped past him moments before the impact.

Ackland and his passengers all ran off after the crash. He was found and arrested two-and-a-half hours later.

Mr Marchant’s wife, who did not attend court, gave a victim impact statement which Judge Tabor read aloud: “She says, ‘I have lost the person I shared everything with, from the little jokes to the big adventures’.”

There was also a victim statement from Mr Marchant’s son Bodie Klein, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, and said he was planning to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with his dad.

Steve Young, representing Ackland, said he had travelled less than a mile in the car, in less than a minute, from the time the police saw him until the crash.

“He is remorseful and saddened by what he has done,” he told the court.

“His own father was killed by a drink driver on Christmas Day when he was riding his motorbike some years ago. He does understand the effect this has.

“He has a significant drug problem. He has very poor health. It is so sad that he drove the way he did that day solely because he had no insurance.”