Mabli Hall: Bridget Curtis jailed for causing death of baby

On the day of the crash, Robert Hall had been at Withybush hospital to see his mother Betty, who was an inpatient there.

The family had been told her prognosis was “a poor one” and palliative care was needed, so the family were “to say their goodbyes”.

Mr Jones said, at about 11:00, Mr Hall was outside with his brother Stephen and Mabli, and was putting Mabli back in her pram when “he heard the sound of an approaching car”.

Curtis had been at the hospital with her daughter for an outpatient appointment, stopping the BMW directly outside the building.

The court heard her daughter got out from the passenger side before making her way to the rear door to retrieve a handbag which was on the back seat.

Curtis, who was still sat in the driver seat “with the engine running”, turned around to look in the back to help find that bag but “failed to place the car into the park setting” and the automatic vehicle propelled forward out of control.

Following the crash, Mabli was taken to the A&E department at Withybush hospital before being transferred to University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and then on to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

Judge Walters said lives had been “changed forever” by the death of a “much cherished child”.

Addressing Curtis, he added: “You are responsible for the life-changing devastation.”

The judge said the evidence in the case was “quite chilling” and, while he accepted Curtis “didn’t set out to drive in that way” or “intend harm to anybody”, it was hard to imagine a case more “grossly reckless”.

In a statement after the sentencing, Mabli’s family said she was “the sunshine in our lives and shall forever be loved and missed”.

“If anything is to be learned from the unnecessary loss of Mabli’s life, it is that everyone who sits behind the wheel of a vehicle needs to realise that they are responsible for their own actions and the wellbeing of others.”