Snowdonia campsite death: Drunk driver who killed woman by running over tent jailed

‘I could so easily have been sentencing you for causing the death of not just one person but, in reality, four that night,’ says judge

Undated handout photo of Anna Evan, 46, who was killed after Jake Waterhouse, 27, drove over her tent while she slept at a campsite near Bethel, in North Wales, August 2019. (RCAHMW/PA Wire)

A driver who killed a mother while she slept after drunkenly crashing into tents at a Snowdonia campsite has been jailed.

Jake Waterhouse, 27, from Partington, Manchester, had been drinking whiskey with a friend at Rhyd y Galen campsite near Bethel, in North Wales, on the evening of 18 August, a court heard.

The father-of-two, who only had a provisional licence, drove friend Philip Eves’ car around the site in the early hours of the following day, first colliding with the tent of Neil Cook and partner Megan Lazenby, who suffered minor injuries.

The car then ploughed into the tent where Anna Roselyn Evans, 46, and her husband Huw were sleeping.

Sion ap Mihangel, prosecuting, told Mold Crown Court Mr Evans had been woken by an “almighty bang”, was cut free from the tent but could not find his wife.

He said: "Later he saw her legs sticking out from underneath the car, which was nearby. He felt helpless."

The court heard how it took five people to lift the car off Ms Evans, who was unresponsive.

Waterhouse initially fled the scene but after he rang his mother and she told him to do "the right thing" he returned, the court was told.

He tested positive for alcohol but later gave insufficient breath tests and refused to give more specimens at the police station.

Ms Evans, who worked for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, was taken to Ysbyty Gwynedd but later transferred to a major trauma unit in Stoke, where she died on 27 August.

In a statement, her husband said her death had had an emotional impact on all of the family, including her children Lowri, 25, and Richard, 24.

He said: "Anna was the love of my life and it will be so difficult to move on, especially with the manner in which she was taken away from us."

Jake Waterhouse, 27, was jailed for more than eight years (North Wales Police)

The court heard Waterhouse had a number of previous convictions, including for violence, criminal damage, driving without insurance and driving not in accordance with a licence.

Sentencing, Judge Rowlands said it was an act "of the most appalling irresponsibility".

He said: "I could so easily have been sentencing you for causing the death of not just one person but, in reality, four that night."

Mentioning Ms Evans' wished that her organs be donated, he added: "If ever there was a woman, mother, who contributed to her family and her community in life, but also in death, it seems a huge tragedy."

Waterhouse, who was in tears at times in the dock, was jailed for eight years and four months after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving on Tuesday.

He was also disqualified from driving for 12 years and two months.

Waterhouse had already admitted driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence, driving with no insurance, and failing to provide a breath specimen for analysis when he appeared at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court in August.

Additional reporting by Press Association.