‘He will end up killing someone else’: Daughter of man killed by a carjacker slams judge’s decision to spare him jail
- Christopher Howell was jailed aged 18 after he killed Sikiru Egberongbe in 2002
- Last year he was arrested after smashing a car into a wall while driving at 50mph
- Mr Egberongbe’s daughter has slammed the judge’s decision to let him walk free
The daughter of a man killed by a carjacker today blasted a decision by a judge to spare him jail and warned ‘he will end up killing someone else’.
Career criminal Christopher Howell was jailed aged 18 when he ran over and killed 64-year-old security guard Sikiru Egberongbe while stealing his car.
Over two decades later he was arrested after smashing a Vauxhall Corsa into a wall while driving through a built-up area at 50mph despite not having a driver’s licence.
Howell – who committed his first offence aged 12 and a history of offences including assault, arson, robbery and aggravated vehicle taking – faced up to five years in jail after he admitted dangerous driving.
But this time the 39-year-old walked free from court after a judge heard that at the time he had just been told his mother was ‘about to take her last breath’ and was racing to get to see her before she died.
Career criminal Christopher Howell (pictured) was jailed aged 18 when he ran over and killed 64-year-old security guard Sikiru Egberongbe while stealing his car
The doting father-of-three (pictured) died in hospital five days after Howell left him in the middle of the road with catastrophic injuries
Image of Howell when he was sentenced to nine years in jail for manslaughter in 2002
Slamming the sentencing yesterday, Mr Egberongbe’s daughter said the judge had been ‘far too lenient’.
‘Some people learn from being in prison and some people change,’ Vanessa Brown, 45, told the Daily Mail.
‘But he’s never going to change.
‘I think he’s just used his mum dying as a defence to get off being jailed.
‘He knows if it was any other reason he wouldn’t get away with it.
‘The danger is because he’s still free to wander the streets he will end up killing someone else.
‘He was lucky this time. What if he’d not hit a wall and hit a pregnant woman or a mum pushing a pram instead?’
Back in 2002, there was outrage at shocking CCTV footage which captured a teenage Howell threatening Mr Egberongbe with a brick as he arrived for his night shift at a Manchester business park.
Nigeria-born Mr Egberongbe had left his Toyota’s engine running so that he could open the gates.
But as he returned, Howell emerged from the shadows and threatened him with a brick.
As Mr Egberongbe tried to grab the youth, Howell sped off, leaving him in the road with catastrophic injuries.
The doting father-of-three died five days later hospital.
CCTV footage of Howell attacking security guard Sikiru Egberongbe in a car jacking in 2002
Howell was given a nine-year sentence by a judge who branded him an ‘experienced, determined and persistent criminal’.
But in 2012 he was locked up for another nine years for robbery and having a bladed article after he targeted motorists in a series of savage carjackings.
In one raid a driver returning to his Audi was punched repeatedly in the head and threatened with being ‘knifed’ as he was robbed of his vehicle, phone, bags and watch.
‘He’s 39 now and no longer a teenager but he’s still getting involved in criminal activity,’ said Mr Egberongbe’s daughter.
Speaking about Howell’s sentence for killing her dad, she said the family had ‘hoped’ for longer than nine years.
‘He showed no remorse for what he’d done to our family at all,’ she said.
The mother-of-two said it was sad her younger daughter, aged 12, had never know her granddad and her 25-year-old daughter had only fleeting memories of him from her childhood.
Her mother Millie had ‘lost herself’ following her husband’s death, she said, and had turned to her children for support.
‘My mum couldn’t cope at all,’ she said.
‘She was overcome with grief and couldn’t do anything because my dad was the one who took responsibility for things like paying the bills.
‘She was lost for a while and we used have to come over and help out.’
The latest offence took place on August 11 last year after police saw Howell driving towards them in Manchester.
Officers began following the Vauxhall Corsa, but when they were 130 metres behind he lost control, hit a wall and the car flipped over, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester was told.
Howell was trapped and had to be removed by the fire service before being taken to hospital where he was later arrested.
Howell pictured in 2012 when he was locked up for another nine years for robbery and having a bladed article after he targeted motorists in a series of savage carjackings
In mitigation, defence counsel Adam Roxborough, said that just before getting into the car, Howell had been told that ‘his mother was about to take her last breath’.
‘In a panic, he took his cousin’s car and sped off towards his mother’s address,’ he said.
‘It was a tragedy for him that he did not get to see his mother before her passing.’
Mr Roxborough said there was no suggestion Howell knew police were following him.
Imposing a 12-month community order, the judge, Recorder Kate Cornell, told Howell it was fortunate no-one was hurt, but said the offence was ‘of a wholly different character’ to his previous crimes.
‘The dangerous period of driving was momentary and motivated purely by your desire to see your dying mother,’ she said.
‘It was a genuine emergency, and it was a great irony that your dangerous driving meant you did not see your mother before she died.’
Howell, from Manchester, was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and banned from driving for 12 months after he admitted driving without a licence or insurance.
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