A university student was spared jail today for killing her younger sister in a horror car crash after her driving instructor mother begged the judge to let her surviving daughter walk free because she had been ‘punished enough’.
Meliha Kaya, 22, may have been driving 60mph in a 30mph zone when she swerved her Mini Cooper into an oncoming BMW and careered off the road and into a tree in east London.
The BMW, driven by 24-year-old Kasim Khan, then collided into the Ford Focus driven by Jordash Graham, also 24, who had been following Kaya closely along the winding road.
Kaya’s 16-year-old sister Elif, a gifted ‘A’ level student and aspiring barrister, was sitting in the Mini’s front seat and suffered the brunt of the collision, dying at the scene in Chigwell Road, Woodford Green.
Her mother Demet Kaya, 36, is a driving instructor and taught Meliha as soon as she was of legal driving age – and pleaded with Judge Wendy Joseph QC not to jail Meliya at the Old Bailey today.
She said: ‘We feel Meliha has been punished enough and would like her to be treated with some compassion.’
Meliha Kaya, 22, (pictured) was spared jail today after her driving instructor mother Demet (behind her) said she had ‘suffered enough’ after killing her sister in a car crash
Elif Keya (left) took the brunt of the crash when she careered over a wall into a tree in South Woodford in her Mini
A statement on behalf of the parents was read to the court by Ms Young, which says: ‘We both asked for prosecution not to be brought because we didn’t want to lose another daughter.
‘Nothing in the world would harm us more than losing her the way we did Eliya [Elif].
‘We have no doubt whatsoever she will be an incredibly careful driver in the future’.
Meliha’s friend Ayla Osman, 24, was sitting in the back seat and suffered severe physical and psychological injuries from which she has not yet fully recovered.
Elif had been sitting in the front passenger seat and was the only one of the three wearing a seatbelt before the crash on at 1.10am on February 13 2016.
Meliha was travelling up to 60mph in a 30mph zone with a friend travelling close behind when she lost control
Earlier that night Meliha and Elif Kaya had been at The George pub on Wanstead High Street along with Osman and Graham before they decided to go back to the Kaya house so the sisters could change.
Of the four, only backseat passenger Osman had been drinking.
The journey was one the girls would regularly make, with Osman usually sitting in the front seat, but Elif had requested that spot on the night of the crash.
Elif was the only one wearing a seatbelt.
For reasons unknown, after passing a traffic island along Chigwell Road, Meliha swerved her car into the wrong side and into the oncoming BMW.
The court heard speculation to why Meliha – who had an ‘impeccable’ driving record and was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol – veered off into the right, but the reason behind that decision remains unknown.
Her car crashed into the oncoming BMW and ploughed over a brick wall and into a tree.
A couple living nearby who were both nurses, heard the smash and left their home outside to see Meliha lying wounded in the overturned Mini.
They fought to save the lives of the crash victims as emergency service staff arrived, but Elif was pronounced dead at the scene as Meliha and Osman were rushed to hospital.
‘What then possessed Ms Kaya on this occasion to exceed the speed limit and not wear her seatbelt will remain something of a mystery,’ her defence barrister Gudrun Young said.
Elif had started her A-level studies and was tipped for a career in the legal profession
Ms Young said that Meliha felt ‘fully responsible’ for the death of Elif, adding: ‘She has spent the last two years tortured by the knowledge that she has caused her own sister’s death.’
The two of them were best friends and spent a significant amount of time together.
Meliha, a criminology student at Middlesex University, needed plastic surgery to her face had to have her spleen removed after the accident and suffered severe, life-threatening injuries, becoming comatose for 11 days.
Her car came to a halt in a garden area outside a block of flats in South Woodford, east London, and she lost all memory of the events after suffering post-traumatic amnesia and PTSD.
Judge Wendy Joseph QC sentenced Kaya to a total of two years in prison, suspended for 12 months, and disqualified her from driving for four years.
Meliha Kaya admitted causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving in connection to the 2016 crash
Graham was sentenced to eight weeks in prison suspended for nine months and suspended from driving for one year.
The judge gave Kaya full credit for her guilty plea – even though she had initially denied the charge – because her confession came as soon as she heard the expert evidence, having no recollection of the crash herself.
Judge Joseph said: ‘Ms Kaya was doing more than 30mph and possible considerably more.
‘Mr Graham was matching her speed and driving too close behind her.
‘Examination of all the road evidence showed that Ms Kaya’s car had yawed out of control across the road – it is not clear what caused that movement.
‘Whatever made this defendant Kaya yaw across the road, it must have been obvious that the road itself presented challenges.’
Meliha now suffers from PTSD and was ‘completely devastated’ by incident, which she cannot recall.
For a year afterwards she had to sleep in her mother’s bed waking in fits of terror, suffering horrific nightmares, tortured by the guilt of her actions.
Defence barrister Gudrun Young said Meliha is ‘racked with guilt’ and would tell her mother: ‘Mum, I killed my sister who had a lot to live for.’
Mother Demet Kaya added in her statement: ‘We are a close family and Meliha was incredibly protective of her younger sister. They would do everything together.’
Kaya admitted causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Graham admitted dangerous driving after speeding in his Ford Focus closely behind her along High Road and Chigwell Road before the collision.
One collision expert said Kaya may have been driving at 60mph, and another said it could have been 40mph.
Elif was studying her A Levels at Epping Forest College and dreamed of studying law.
Meliha Kaya, of Woodford, east London, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Graham, of Leytonstone, east London, admitted dangerous driving. They were both given suspended sentences.