Two-year-old paralysed after mother let cocaine dealer drive children home in Cheshire crash
Mother and driver sentenced after crash injured four children; the youngest left permanently disabled
A two-year-old boy was left paralysed from the waist down after a crash in Cheshire that authorities say occurred when his mother allowed a cocaine dealer to drive her children home from a football tournament.
Rhys Farry, 30, who had been drinking lager and snorting cocaine, overtook a line of traffic in his Audi A3, ran a red light and struck another car before careering into a tree on the A537 near Chelford, in the Macclesfield area, on April 20. He was found to be seven times the drug-drive limit at the time and did not hold a valid license or insurance for the vehicle. Farry attempted to flee the scene but was stopped by bystanders and urged to return.
Bowman’s youngest child, a boy aged two, sustained a severe spinal cord injury in the crash and doctors have said he will never walk again. Her five-year-old daughter suffered a broken and dislocated arm and a fractured neck, while her six-year-old son sustained a broken collar bone along with multiple internal injuries. Investigators found that none of the children wore child seats or boosters; they were restrained with adult seat belts instead.
Bowman, a single mother of four from Wythenshawe, Manchester, was injured in the crash and arrested on suspicion of neglect. She later admitted three charges of child neglect at Chester Crown Court. Prosecutors said she had invited Farry to give her and her children a lift, despite knowing he had been drinking and had a history of cocaine use, and she allowed the children to travel with him in a car driven by a man who she knew had no license or insurance.
During the sentencing, Judge Natalie Cuddy told Bowman that she had exposed her children to very serious risk by allowing them to travel with a driver she knew to be under the influence and by failing to ensure appropriate restraints for the children. Bowman faced up to 14 years in jail but was given a 20-month prison sentence, suspended for 20 months, after the judge noted she was the sole carer for the children and had shown some remorse. The judge also ordered Bowman to complete 20 days of rehabilitation activities and to adhere to an alcohol abstinence requirement, with ongoing drug and alcohol testing to demonstrate that she had stopped using cocaine and alcohol.
The court heard Bowman had previously indicated she would work with social services and drug and alcohol services going forward. The judge said any custodial sentence would have likely caused further harm to the children and acknowledged Bowman’s own difficult upbringing and mental health challenges.
Farry, who was already convicted in a separate proceeding, was jailed for three years for causing serious injury by dangerous driving, drug driving and having no license or insurance. He had earlier ignored pleas from the children to slow down before the crash and was later apprehended after attempting to flee the scene. The occupants of the other vehicle involved in the crash, including a 60-year-old woman, a 33-year-old woman and a one-year-old boy in a Sandero, sustained minor injuries.
Authorities noted that all four children involved in the crash were subject to child protection plans at the time of the incident and that their mother’s actions had prompted renewed scrutiny of social services’ oversight. The incident occurred as Bowman and her three children were returning from a football tournament to support her eldest child, who was nine years old at the time.