Armel Houanda, 39, (pictured outside court) put 20-month-old Amelie in a car seat in the back of his partner’s Audi Q3 Sport, despite only holding a provisional driving licence and failing his driving theory test four times
A father who killed his daughter by crashing a car into a fence after he took his hands off the wheel for three seconds has been jailed for more than two years.
Armel Houanda, 39, of Coventry, put 20-month-old Amelie in a car seat in the back of his partner’s Audi Q3 Sport, which he took without her permission, despite only holding a provisional driving licence and failing his driving theory test four times.
He lost control when he took his hands off the steering wheel when Amelie managed to free herself from the car seat.
The powerful sports car left the road and hit a fence which sent a wooden panel smashing through the windscreen, which hit Amelie in the head.
A court heard he took his hands off the wheel for between one and three seconds before he crashed on June 22 last year.
The child suffered catastrophic head injuries and despite being rushed to hospital she died two-and-a-half hours later.
Houanda admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for two years eight months at Warwick Crown Court.
He also admitted taking the without consent and driving with no insurance or full licence.
The court heard he took his hands off the steering wheel and turned around after Amelie had freed her arms from the child seat’s restraint as he drove in Wolvey, Warwickshire.
Houanda admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for two years eight months at Warwick Crown Court
Prosecutor Graeme Simpson said Houanda put Amelie in a child seat in the back of the car and set off to drive a friend to Leicester and then set off back home.
But as he drove along the B4114 Smockington Lane near Wolvey at about 2.05pm that afternoon, he lost control of the car.
A later investigation of the crash indicated that there had been no excessive speed, but no braking before the crash.
Mr Simpson said that people who stopped to try to assist saw Houanda standing in the road cradling his child in his arms.
Little Amelie was rushed to University Hospital in Coventry by air ambulance, but despite attempts to save her, she died.
When Houanda was later interviewed, he explained that Amelie had freed her arms from the child seat’s restraint, and he had taken his hands off the steering wheel and turned round to assist her, worried that she would wriggle out of the seat.
He entered his guilty plea on the basis that he had been looking back for one to three seconds before the car left the road, and he accepted he should have stopped before turning round.
Mr Simpson added that Houanda had a previous conviction in 2010 for taking a car without consent and driving with no insurance and not in accordance with his provisional licence.
Judge Anthony Potter said: ‘He turned and took his hands off the wheel. On any assessment that is dangerous.
‘He had no right not only to drive that vehicle, but to drive at all – but there is the significant mitigating factor that it was his daughter who died.
‘Had he not driven, as he was not supposed to, this accident would not have happened. He had failed his theory test on four occasions, and had been prosecuted before for driving when he should not have, and using someone else’s vehicle when he should not have.
‘Even by the standards of such cases, this is a particularly tragic case.
‘The sad fact is that there is nothing I can do by way of sentence which will reflect the loss of your daughter to her mother or to you.
A court heard he took his hands off the wheel for between one and three seconds before he crashed on June 22 last year
‘The journey you took was not a short one, and the tragic fact is that on your way back you removed both hands from the wheel and turned round to deal with an issue with your daughter.
‘You do not appear to have made any attempt to stop the vehicle or to have slowed down. Instead you looked backwards for a matter of seconds, and in doing so lost control and, having left the carriageway, collided with a fence.
‘The fence post entered the cabin, causing catastrophic injuries to your daughter, who sadly died later that afternoon.
‘I am quite prepared to accept you will never forget June 22 last year, and your responsibility for what happened.
‘You express real remorse to the author of the pre-sentence report, in which it is clear your concerns were not for your immediate future, but for the effect on Miss Jemma Tomkinson, his partner.’
Houanda was also banned from driving for nine years and four months.
Simon Hunka, defending, said: ‘He has, of course, never denied responsibility for what happened. He, essentially, is using the words ‘do with me what you will.’
‘He says that simply because his view is that, given what has happened and the loss he has suffered, albeit as a result of an act of his, nothing the court can do can add, in his view, to what he is already experiencing.
‘The impact upon him of losing his daughter is unimaginable, and the fact it was a result of something he did is something he has to deal with.’