Parents Slam Drink-Drive Death Term

17 November 2011, 11:23 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

The parents of a Manchester Metropolitan University student who was left for dead in the road by a drink-driving mum have criticised her jail sentence and said she should be serving a life term.

Zoe Murphy, 30, was imprisoned for four years and eight months at Manchester Crown Court over the death of Jamie Martin, 23, who she ran over last October.

The photography student fell into the road in Rusholme after a night out and was then hit by Murphy, who was not watching the road as she went to grab a can of beer.

The mother-of-two, from Baguley, failed to stop at the scene but was later apprehended after a witness called police and gave the registration plate of her vehicle.

She was breathalysed and found to be nearly double the drink-drive limit. It emerged she had taken a friend's car as she had no driving licence or insurance.

A police officer who was on his way home from work came across the scene of the collision in Birchfields Road in the early hours of October 31, Greater Manchester Police said.

He called an ambulance and gave emergency aid to Mr Martin but he had died almost immediately.

Murphy, of Stonebeck Road, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving, drink-driving and various other motoring offences at an earlier hearing.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Mr Martin's parents Vincent and Shirley said: "Once you get behind the wheel of a car and you've been drinking, you should be charged with murder.

"The sentence she has got is not long enough. This woman killed our son, so it should be life in prison.''