Drunk driver's early release cancelled after family's 'summer from hell'

Malcolm Waite, who killed 20-year-old Fenella Hawes in 2022, will not be freed early after a government U-turn. Her sister Rosie Shepherd welcomed the reversal.

Sister of drink-drive victim relieved as killer's early release is blocked

The sister of a young woman killed on a pavement by a drunk driver has said she wishes she could witness the moment he was told his early release had been cancelled. Rosie Shepherd, 31, made the remarks after a last-minute policy reversal by Prime Minister Andy Burnham removed Malcolm Waite from eligibility under the government's early release scheme.

Daily Express first reported last month how Shepherd and her family had endured what she described as a "summer from hell" — beginning in June, when they were abruptly informed that Waite, now 72, could walk free within months. Waite had mowed down Shepherd's 20-year-old sister, Fenella Hawes, on a pavement in July 2022, stopping only when his car struck a lamppost roughly a mile after the impact. The arresting officer described him as the "drunkest I have ever seen behind the wheel."

Waite received an eight-year sentence for causing death by dangerous driving. The judge ruled he would serve two-thirds of that term, but the government's early release scheme had threatened to reduce his time behind bars to less than half the original sentence.

On Sunday, Burnham announced that anyone convicted of unlawful killing — including all forms of manslaughter and death by dangerous driving — would be excluded from early release, following sustained public pressure. The same day, Justice Secretary Alex Norris telephoned Shepherd directly to confirm the U-turn.

"It was a crazy day," she said. "I saw some reports on the news but I couldn't really accept anything until the phone call. I asked, 'Can you confirm that my sister's killer is definitely not being released?' and he said, 'Yes'."

Shepherd said she took satisfaction in imagining Waite's reaction to the news. "Someone is going to walk up to him and say, 'You're not getting out'. I can only imagine he would be so disappointed, and I would have really liked to have seen that."

Norris subsequently invited Shepherd and her mother to his office to discuss how the case had been handled. Shepherd, a dental nurse who lives with her husband and three children in Cromer, Norfolk, told the Justice Secretary she had sent his department a letter in June that went unanswered until August. "I said there wasn't a good enough response, and you need to do better, and he apologised lots," she said.

The ordeal has prompted Shepherd to retrain professionally. "I have decided to go back to university in the view of becoming a victim support worker in some capacity," she said. "I'm doing it for my sister." She also criticised the broader justice framework, arguing that those convicted of killing another person should be required to serve their full sentence.

Shepherd has received support from Liberal Democrat MP Steff Aquarone. "I have been proud to stand alongside her," Aquarone said.

The wider early release scheme had initially been set to free around 6,000 prisoners this month to ease jail overcrowding, a figure reduced to approximately 5,000 after ministers moved to exempt rapists and serious child sex offenders. The scope of exclusions expanded further after it emerged that Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole — convicted of the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper in 2020 — would have been eligible under the original criteria. The subsequent public backlash led to all those convicted of unlawful killing being removed from the scheme, along with grooming gang perpetrators.

Justice Secretary Norris said: "This is a government not shying away from the tough decisions needed to build a justice system that is firm, fair and protects the public."

Source: Daily Express