THE FATHER of Rugby boy Freddie Fox – the 13-month-old who died after a crash on the M6 in 2014 – has been found guilty of causing his son’s death by careless driving.
Andrew Fox’s car left the motorway and crashed into a tree when he swerved to avoid a vehicle he suddenly noticed in front of him on the M6 in December 2014.
For months Fox, a West Midlands Police community support officer, had denied being responsible, and pleaded not guilty.
But on the day of his trial at Warwick Crown Court he changed his plea to guilty.
Fox, 26, of John McGuire Crescent, Binley, Coventry, was given a 12-month community order with 270 hours of unpaid work, and was banned from driving for 12 months.
Judge Alan Parker told Fox: “You do not appear to me to have shown any remorse. You’ve shown yourself to be exceptionally selfish, and have given little thought about the consequences of this apart from the consequences to yourself.”
Prosecutor Lee Marklew said the tragic crash happened on a bright clear day on December 7 2014 at around 9.30 in the morning as Fox was driving north between junctions 1 and 2 on the M6, with Freddie in a safety seat in the rear.
But prosecution and defence experts agreed he would have had a clear view for 500 metres ahead of him as he was driving at 70-80mph.
Fox and Freddie’s mother Charlotte Jolliffe had split up two weeks earlier, and he had picked the toddler up from Charlotte’s home in Rugby that morning.
He had adjusted the rear-view mirror so he could see his son rather than the road behind.
With nothing immediately in front of him, he spent what he said was ‘no more than five seconds’ looking in the mirror as Freddie played with one of his toys.
Mr Marklew said: “When he looked back at the road he suddenly realised there was a car immediately in front of him, and he panicked and pulled the car to the right.”
The car careered across the carriageway towards the central reservation, then went back the other way across the hard shoulder and, at some speed, into a number of trees.
Paramedics attended the scene and Freddie was rushed to Birmingham Children’s Hospital suffering from severe head injuries, from which he died three days later.
Ian Speed, defending, said: “The thing that stopped him pleading guilty is that he has regarded that he has not himself been thought of as a victim as well, which he clearly is, as are his family. It will stay with him for the rest of his life.”
Mr Speed said Fox had been a PCSO with West Midlands Police for a number of years, receiving £1,350 a month, out of which he had continued to pay for Charlotte’s home although he and his new partner had their own outgoings.
Sentencing Fox, Judge Parker said: “Your careless driving… led to a catastrophic collision with trees and shrubbery which you survived, but your son Freddie was tragically killed. This must have happened due to inattention on your part.
“Even on your own account you took your eyes off the road for five seconds, in which time the car would have travelled at least 150 metres, if not more. I am sure what happened is that you allowed your mind to wander and drift.
“Freddie was your son, but more especially the adored son of your former partner Charlotte Jolliffe.
“If he had lived, he would have had the incomparable blessing to have been brought up by a most loving mother. She was a perfect mother to a perfect child.”
The judge pointed out that immediately after the crash Fox had not been honest in texts he sent Freddie’s mother, saying someone had pulled out on him, which was not true.
“You told her to go to the hospital, but never told her which one, and she was held up in the traffic which had been stopped for the emergency services to care for Freddie.
“She was then taken by the police to the children’s hospital in Birmingham, and Freddie died later. Her pain is incomprehensible and will never go away.”
And Judge Parker commented: “I want to emphasise the contrast between the selfishness of the defendant and her selfless devotion to Freddie’s memory in raising £35,000 to help others left distraught by the life-changing event of losing a child.
“You knew full-well you were to blame. Although you have undoubtedly suffered the pain of the loss of a child, you have since then focussed with real determination on your own selfish needs in seeking to avoid the consequences of your behaviour.”
At her own request, Charlotte read out a statement in which she tearfully spoke of her loss as being ‘too much to bear’ – but also of the £35,000 the charity she set up in her son’s name has raised for the hospital.
In her heart-rending impact statement, Charlotte told the judge: “Fourteen months on since Freddie’s passing, tiny fingerprints still mark my windows and telly, toys still fill my lounge, there’s still a highchair at my kitchen table and a pram at my back door.
“How can I move those things and let them go when my baby should be here with me.
“I spent my son’s second birthday utterly heartbroken, sobbing uncontrollably into the ash-filled cardboard tube I now call my son.
“I will never see my son grow up, I’ll never hear him talk to me, I’ll never have a copy of his first drawing, I’ll never see him go to school or university or get married, and I may never have grandchildren. This is just too much loss to bear.”
Charlotte spoke of throwing up on the M6 on seeing the wrecked car as she was trying to get to the hospital and realising how badly injured Freddie must have been.
And she went on to talk about being in the hospital ‘lying beside Freddie and holding him, watching him take his last breath and closing my eyes just for a minute, pretending we were just sleeping.’
She continued: “I will never be blissfully happy again. The day that car crashed and killed my beautiful, happy little boy was the day that my life was truly ruined for ever. This is a pain I will carry until my dying day.”
