'I thought I heard daughter crying during phone call - but truth was much worse'

A mum thought she could hear her daughter crying in the background when a police officeranswered her phone - but she later found out she was already dead.

Keely Morgan, 15, was killed after being hit by a caron a zebra crossing in Caerau, Wales, on May 1, 2023. People living nearby heard the bang and went outside to find the car's driver saying: "I have just hit her – I am so sorry" and "I didn't see her. It was too dark. She came out of nowhere. I hit her." Keely was lying on the side of the road with significant injuries to her head and face. Passers-by had tried in vain to save her life and some gave CPR but she died at the side of the road just four minutes from her home at 10.02pm.

Her mum Sian has now told how she had been calling her daughter on her phone without reply and when eventually a police officer answered she thought she could hear Keely in the background.

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"Keely headed out, it must have been about 7pm, it wasn't too late, but then I didn't hear from her so I remembered sending her a text telling her not to be late and she needed to be home," she said, reportedWalesOnline.

"There was nothing back, but I didn't think too much of it because I thought her phone might be dead, or she was chatting with the girls or singing and dancing or doing whatever, but she was really good. She was a delight, and so well behaved.

"About quarter to 11 I hadn't heard from her and I started calling and there was no answer. Eventually a police officer answered it. She said 'Can you give me an address? Can I come to see you now?' but as she was talking to me, I thought I could hear Keely crying in the background, and I will never forget it.

"I said to the officer 'what has she done' because I thought she was in trouble, and the officer just kept saying to me 'I will be there in five minutes'. She just wouldn't say anything else."

When the police car arrived, Sian saw Keely wasn't in it. "I'm adamant I heard her crying," said Sian, though tragically her daughter was already dead. "The officer came to the house but I was in complete denial. She sat me down and said 'there's been a collision. I'm awfully sorry, Keely was involved in it and she's deceased'.

"I'll never forget, my body from top to bottom, I just felt heat. My body just felt like it was going to explode and I just started screaming saying it wasn't right. When the officer grabbed me to give me a cuddle I wouldn't accept it was real. I was just numb for days and days after that."

Sian has other children, and it's for Keely's siblings she gets out of bed every day. "They can't lose their mum, they've lost their sister already. I devote my life to the other kids," she said.

Christopher West, 42, from Ely, Cardiff, who was the driver of the car, was sentenced on July 17 for causing death by careless driving and causing death while driving uninsured. He was given 16 months imprisonment, disqualified from driving for two years and eight months, and will be required to retake his test, the judge ordered.

The court had heard that he was driving without a black box connected in his car as it should have been and he had told a daughter not to tell the police he was speeding. After both of his daughters gave evidence to the police, he planned to challenge their accounts in court before then dropping his claims.

After entering his guilty pleas, West adopted a basis of plea in which he claimed he had not removed the black box intentionally, and he had not been driving inappropriately prior to the collision.

A trial of issue was set up and scheduled for Friday, July 11. Keely's family and witnesses were at the court ready when West's legal team said he no longer wished to proceed with the basis of plea and would be sentenced on the full facts of the prosecution's case.

Keely's mum was dismayed West did not get a harsher sentence and now Sian wants a change to the law. She has set up a petition, which has more than 2,000 names in just a few days.

It reads: "Reckless drivers—especially repeat offenders—must face stronger consequences. Driving is a privilege, not a right. When someone abuses that privilege and puts innocent lives at risk, after a fatal collision, their licence should be immediately revoked. Prison sentences should reflect the severity of their actions. And no one should be allowed back behind the wheel without a thorough psychological and behavioural reassessment."

"There's never enough justice. Never enough years for what he's done, but I think they should do two years minimum," said Sian over the sentence.

The judge criticised West for his conduct in the lead-up to sentencing. Judge Paul Hobson told him: "Your decision to remove the black box was deliberate. You told (your younger daughter) you had disconnected it, which is not consistent with you forgetting. The picture of you is that of an irresponsible show off."

The speed limit on the road was 30mph, but he was travelling at approximately at 37mph. "In my judgement, you approached that crossing significantly in excess of the speed limit and in any event at a speed too fast in all the circumstances given the crossing," the judge told him.

"You did not slow down or brake as you would admit to the police and failed to give sufficient attention to the activity at that crossing. You may have been distracted by passengers, whatever caused it you weren’t paying attention to the road.

"Drivers have responsibilities to take care of their speed and observation of the road ahead. In addition to this you were not insured to drive at the time, this is because the black box in the car had been disconnected by you."