Jail for killer driver

A career criminal who killed a pensioner in a stolen car three months after grabbing £100,000 of valuables from magician Dynamo’s home was jailed for nearly 13 years.

Alistair McWilliams, 33, broke into the 36-year-old magician’s £1.3million home in East Heath Street, Hampstead, while the entertainer was on holiday.

After forcing has way in through the back door of the Grade II listed home he ransacked the master bedroom, plundering jewellery including a Lady’s Ballon Bleu De Cartier watch valued at £14,300 and £10,000 engagement ring set.

Just three months later, in the early hours of 23 August this year, the thief ploughed into 77-year-old great grandfather Richard Dougherty as he drunkenly drove a stolen Nissan Primera around Kentish Town.

He was spotted by a black cab driver doing at least three times the 20mph speed limit without the car’s headlights on.

CCTV footage showed the vehicle swerving onto the wrong side of the road, weaving around traffic bollards and overtaking other cars before it mounted the pavement and smashed into Mr Dougherty at 47mph.

‘No doubt Mr Dougherty was unable to see and avoid the unlit car travelling as it was erratically and at high speed,’ said prosecutor Angus Bunyan.

‘Local residents heard the screeching of tyres, a loud crash and screaming.

‘The car left the road and turned on its side, coming to rest on its off-side in the front garden area of a block of flats having destroyed part of a brick wall.

‘A local resident dialled 999 and watched from her window as various people climbed out of the car.

‘First out was the defendant. He started limping and then running off west towards Kentish Town Road.

‘A resident of the block into which the Primera had crashed recalls that the defendant had said: ‘We need to run, we have to run’.

‘Three young girls then emerged from the vehicle, helping each other out of the wrecked car.

‘One of them said: ‘He’s a f**king dead man’ and another resident heard a girl say: ‘We hit him, he’s dead’.

‘None of the car’s occupants approached Mr Dougherty, lying as he was a few feet away from where the car had come to rest.’

Mr Dougherty clung on to life for the following 13 days but sadly died from the devastating head injuries he suffered in the crash.

In the burglary McWilliams grabbed a an iPad, MacBook, pair of Beats by Dre headphones, Chanel bag and belt, £85 Hermes silver-edged playing cards, a £15,500 gent’s custom designed Rolex Milagus Oyster watch as well as the jewellery.

A neighbour later reported seeing suspicious activity around the property on 15 May, days before ADT notified the magician – real name Steven Frayne – that an alarm had been triggered.

But another resident living nearby saw no sign of a disturbance and the security firm dismissed the alert as having been accidentally triggered by an animal.

McWilliams was arrested four months later after police recovered a DNA sample matching his on the branch of a tree overlooking the fence used to gain entry, the Old Bailey heard.

He denied burglary but was convicted by a jury having already admitted causing the death of Mr Dougherty by dangerous driving and other related offences.

McWilliams claimed he did not realise he had hit anyone in the car smash and only found out when he read about the smash in the newspaper.

‘In the context of describing the accident, he said that he was ‘drunk out of his nut’ when he’d been driving that morning,’ Mr Bunyan said.

‘He said the car fishtailed for about 10 seconds prior to the accident and he thought that anyone would have got out of the way when they saw him coming.’

Hassan Baig, defending told the court McWilliams had ‘come off the rails’ after leaving prison and finding himself living in a homeless shelter.

He said he intends to gain as many qualifications as he can whilst serving his latest sentence in order to get proper accommodation when he is eventually released.

Judge Brendan Finucane QC said McWilliams had a ‘terrible’ criminal record comprising 35 convictions for 71 offences.

Among those are three for aggravated vehicle taking, four for taking without the owner’s consent, five for driving with no insurance, five for driving whilst disqualified or without a licence and 15 for motor vehicle interference or theft from a vehicle.

He also has a single conviction for GBH and ABH respectively, four for dwelling burglaries and was on licence for a robbery – for which he was handed a nine-year sentence in 2013 – when he committed his two recent offences.

The robbery conviction stemmed from his role as lookout man in a £200,000 smash and grab at a branch of Ernest Jones in Exeter in February of that year.

Jailing him for twelve years and nine months, Judge Finucane slammed McWilliams’ ‘utterly callous decision to run away’ leaving Mr Dougherty lying helpless on the roadside.

‘I am afraid that on the evidence I have seen it is clear that at least the three girls that got out of the car after you were well aware that Mr Dougherty was ‘dead’,’ he told him.

‘I do not believe for one second – particularly given your record for dishonesty and having seen you lie blatantly on oath in this courtroom on trial for robbery – that you did not know Mr Dougherty was dying at that moment and seriously injured.

‘Accordingly, I use the word callous. It was incredibly callous what you did.

‘Even when you found out he was dead – on your version Mr McWilliams – you still did not give yourself up and did nothing except eventually be found and then arrested.’

The judge was similarly ‘sceptical’ about McWilliams’ pleas of remorse.

‘Everything about your career as a criminal suggests that remorse is the last thing you feel, and your relationships to other human beings is one where you are unconcerned as to what you do to them.’

McWilliams, of no fixed address, was convicted or robbery after having pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, aggravated vehicle taking, causing death whilst driving without licence and causing death whilst driving uninsured.

He was sentenced to four-and-a-half years for the burglary, and eight years and three months for the driving matters with Judge Finucane ordering they be served consecutively, bringing the total term to 12 years and nine months.