THE MOTHER and the partner of a man who murdered a father when he ploughed into him in a car have both been convicted of trying to help him evade capture.
Ashley Donald's mum Faye Gowdy and his girlfriend Bethany Donohue helped him flee to Ireland in the days after the fatal 2022 collision in Coventry.
On Monday, 44-year-old Gowdy and Donohue, 23, were both convicted of assisting an offender.
Ferry tickets
Shortly before 11pm on July 12, 2022, Donald was driving a silver Mondeo when he deliberately went the wrong way up a one-way street and hit Andrew Flamson as he walked his dog.
Mr Flamson, 40, died in hospital three days later, while a man who was with him sustained life-changing injuries, including a fractured skull and brain trauma.
Within hours of the collision, Donald had contacted both his girlfriend and his mum.
Gowdy transferred money to Donohue, who brought two ferry tickets to Ireland, with Donald fleeing the country two days after the collision.
Gowdy and Donohue will be sentenced in August (Images: West Midlands Police)On July 19, officers arrested Gowdy at her home in Edgbaston and when Donohue landed back in Britain at Birmingham Airport later that day, she too was detained.
The process of extraditing Donald from Ireland got underway, however, he returned to Britain in September and handed himself in at Coventry Police Station.
Following a trial in May last year, Donald was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 23 years after being convicted of Mr Flamson's murder.
Three other men who were also in the car at the time were convicted of manslaughter and were each jailed for between 12 and 15 years.
'Devastating'
Gowdy, of Carpenter Road, Edgbaston, and Donohue, of Albany Road, Coventry, are due to be sentenced on August 12 at Leamington Crown Court.
"This was an awful case of a car being used as a weapon with devastating results," said Detective Inspector Tom Lyons.
"For anyone to then assist the perpetrator of such an act as they tried to evade justice is wholly unacceptable.
"And we have not shied away from bringing both these women who attempted to do just that before the courts."
