On October 10th 2015, Anna Downey was tragically killed when on her way home in a black cab only seconds away from her home where her mum and two young daughters were waiting.

You know that sickening feeling when then phone rings in the middle of the night an you instantly know something is wrong, for our family it was a knock on door.

Anna had arranged to go out on the evening of the 10th having had a drink with our close cousin Johnny and enjoying the rest of her night Anna's evening drew too a close and she said her goodbyes before jumping in a taxi to take her home too her two young daughters and our mum who was babysitting. She never made it home that night and for us it was the beginning of a nightmare. In the early hours of Sunday morning our mum was met at the door by 2 police officers who delivered the most unimaginably devastating news. As our mum tried to shield two daughters from the devastating she was told they needed to 'hear this now' as there is no right time to tell an 8 and 11 year old that their mummy has been killed. The police officers told the girls that mummy had done everything right that night, getting in a black cab and putting on her seatbelt and this was in no way their mummy's fault, she had been the responsible Anna which she always had been. 

On the 6th January 2017, after 15 harrowing months for our family, the individual responsible for Anna's death was sentenced. The defendant at 17 stole the car, was twice over the legal limit, had no insurance or license and shockingly left the scene of the crime. The defendant was sentenced to 3 years but only to serve a mere 18 months and 18 months on license in a juvenile centre for death by carless driving while under the influence of alcohol and a two year driving ban. After months of utter despair for our family, not knowing if justice would be served we were then hit with the blow of the system completely letting Anna down with such a sentence. Anna was a social care manager, and worked in child protection. Anna helped vulnerable families, a job she was most passionate about. Anna worked for the system, lived her life by the system and we feel it is an insult to all what she worked so hard for, with the irony being the defendant themselves had been in the care system. 

We have appealed to the Attorney General under a unduly lenient sentence. We want Anna's case to stand as a example for other people who cause death by carless driving to not serve such a short prison sentence and prevent other families going through the devastation that we are. We want Anna's case to act as a deterrent to not only other adolescents and young adults but every individual who drives carelessly an over the limit as we feel that serving only 18 months of a 3 year sentence is not sufficient in deterring other people from doing what the individual who killed Anna did. We hope that by the public supporting this petition we get the justice that Anna deserves. By fighting this and achieving some form of justice we hope to show that other families can appeal and if you fight for what is right there can be an outcome of some form of justice and closure. 

Thank you for the taking the time to read this, Mandy Downey, Anna's sister.