One-eyed driver caught behind wheel SEVEN times while banned before killing young mum after rolling car 60m in Northamptonshire crash

A young mum lost her life after a drug dealer whom she had been seeing for just two weeks spun his car off the road.

Steven Michael Gaskell had been previously caught driving while banned seven times and had never even passed a driving test. He had only one eye, had a broken leg and had cannabis in his system on the day he bought a Mini for £400 from Facebook marketplace. Later that night, he took out his young girlfriend Courtney Donnelly in the motor before he lost control of the car and killed her.

Just 24 days earlier, he had been given a suspended prison term after being caught on the A14 behind the wheel of a vehicle he had stolen.

At Northampton Crown Court yesterday (Thursday, January 11), prosecuting barrister Andy Peet described Gaskell’s record as ‘appalling’. He has 53 convictions, including seven for driving while disqualified, and the same number for driving without insurance dating back to when he was 19. Gaskell, 31, was also the only man ever prosecuted in connection with the unsolved murder of Les Ross. He was charged with the burglary of Mr Ross’s house before he died.

‘Why do I always get away with it?’

The court was told that Gaskell had bought the Mini at 6.30pm on September 17 last year, and that the accident happened just a few hours later at 11pm. Gaskell had been driving on the A427 near Brampton Ash when he clipped the verge and rolled several times into a field.

Mr Peet said that a man who stopped at the scene phoned 999 but front-seat-passenger Courtney – mum to Lily-Mae, aged just two – had been killed, suffering ‘catastrophic’ head injuries.

Gaskell, of Fotheringhay Road, was taken to University Hospital Coventry and, when arrested, he asked police why previous courts had always let him off.

"Why do I always get away with it?” Gaskell asked officers. "She’s dead. I might as well be dead. I don’t want to be here any more.”

Mr Peet said: “He’s addicted to driving while disqualified. It can’t be put more plainly than that.”

At the sentencing hearing Gaskell admitted causing death by driving while disqualified, possession with intent to supply cannabis and driving without insurance, The court heard he had been a banned driver for eleven years.

Gaskell only has one eye after he was shot with a BB gun in 2022 in what was said to be a drug deal gone wrong. The court was unable to determine whether the injury, and a serious injury to his right leg he had at the time of the incident, would have prevented him getting a driving licence had he not already been banned.

Drug dealer

In the footwell of the car was cannabis and pills, and two mobile phones showed police that Gaskell was a drug dealer, regularly sending bulk texts to customers who bought his cannabis. He had received a message that afternoon from a customer who wanted 7g of the Class B drug.

When Gaskell was found trapped in the front passenger seat, with several serious injuries, he told officers he thought the car must have been defective.

"I’ve killed her, haven’t I?” he said. "The car must have been dodgy. I felt her go a few times. I shouldn’t have been driving while disqualified. She’s 23, she’s dead. What am I meant to do now? I’m going to jail. At least I can see with one eye.”

Experts who examined the car found nothing wrong with the vehicle. There was no evidence of emergency braking on the road and Gaskell has never given an explanation for losing control of the car. Mr Peet said: “The fact he was driving a car while believing there was something wrong with the vehicle indicates his attitude towards driving cars. He simply doesn’t care.”

‘How can a parent ever come to terms with the loss of their daughter?’

Courtney’s aunt Kelly Donnelly read a victim impact statement which she pointedly delivered to a sobbing Gaskell who was seated in the dock.

She said: “On September 17 a mother’s life was stolen. Courtney was a loving single mother who always put her daughter Lily-Mae first, caring for her with love and responsibility. Together with her daughter’s nanny, that child was adored beyond measure.

“Courtney was the perfect sister and a great daughter. How can a parent ever come to terms with the loss of their daughter and the horrific incident which occurred that night? We will never hear Courtney’s voice again. We will never see that beautiful smile that would light up a room. We will never see that fun-loving mum playing and watching her daughter grow up."

“You alone have caused this,” she said, looking at Gaskell whose parents were in the courtroom.

Kelly said that the family had an agonising four-week wait to while Courtney’s body was held after her death. She went on: “My sister will never find the words to explain the devastation she felt. She remembers screaming, crying and shouting no, no, no. My sister wasn’t able to recognise her daughter. Imagine not being able to identify your own daughter.”

Gaskell’s barrister Micaila Williams said that her client knew he should not have been at the wheel that night.

"He’d been a disqualified driver for many years," she said. "He had no qualms about his own ability to drive and didn’t believe he was putting Miss Donnelly at risk of harm. It was a way of life for him."

He sent up a handwritten note to the judge explaining how this time ‘things were different’.

Ms Williams added: “It’s only now there’s a realisation of the significant risk he placed others at.”

She said that he had two children whom he would now not see for some years. Ms Williams added that he had become a cannabis dealer after he had been shot, previously working scrapping cars. But she said he denied taking cannabis on the day of Courtney’s death, despite it being present in his blood at illegal levels.

His Honour Judge Rupert Mayo accepted that Gaskell had pleaded guilty and reduced his sentence by a third. He gave him a prison term of five years and two months in total, of which he will serve half.

He said: “You still deny ingesting cannabis on that day. You have never passed a driving test. It’s a shame it’s taken the death of Courtney Donnelly to bring about any form of understanding as to why you shouldn’t drive while disqualified.”

Gaskell was banned from driving for two years after he gets out of prison and will have to sit an extended driving test.

‘Selfish’

Following yesterday’s verdict, lead investigator, Det Con Eleanor Hudson of the serious collision investigation unit, said: “Steven Gaskell has clearly demonstrated a total disregard for the sanctions imposed by the court as he knew that he was not entitled to be driving yet still chose to do so. His selfish decision to continue to get behind the wheel of a car not only robbed a young woman of her future but also her young daughter of her mummy. Courtney was a much-loved daughter, and her death has left her family devastated and heartbroken. Through his own fault, Gaskell will live with the consequences of the decisions he made on that night. Not only the impact it has had on his partner, her daughter and family but his own life too."