Yahoo News Plymouth killer Luke Dann has bid dismissed by judge
A Plymouth man convicted of manslaughter by driving his Range Rover over the body and head of his victim has failed in his bid to see his sentence reduced.
Luke Dann, of Beechwood Rise, Manor Park was handed a 15 year jail sentence after he was found guilty of the manslaughter of 42-year-old David Kelly in Leigham Manor Drive on the night of March 21 last year.
Emergency services were first called at around 8.45pm on March 21, 2023 to Leigham Manor Drive following reports of a crash involving a black Range Rover car and a pedestrian. David Kelly, a local 42-year-old man, was confirmed deceased at the scene.
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Later that evening Dann was arrested on suspicion of murder. In interview, he gave a prepared statement in which he described that he had been driving home when he was attacked and said, ‘I was in fear for my safety’. He denied intentionally hitting anyone with his car and pleaded not guilty to murder at court.
However, during the trial a forensic pathologists' report found Mr Kelly had sustained "significant injuries" - injuries to the head with massive brain injury and multiple connecting skull fractures, skeletal injuries to the front and back of the chest, and the aorta [the main blood vessel from the heart] was "completely cut through" resulting in no blood supply "to anything below that level".
At his sentencing hearing at Plymouth Crown Court in September Judge Peter Johnson told Dann it was "clear your ego had a major part to play in the tragic events that were to follow". The jury heard how Dann had encountered Mr Kelly, who was under the influence of drink and drugs at the time, in Leigham Manor Drive as he was returning home in his Range Rover from a night out at a snooker hall.
Witnesses told the court Mr Kelly - on foot and awaiting a drug dealer - had argued with Dann before the Range Rover drove off towards Beechwood Road, but then turned around and headed back to Mr Kelly.
In his police statement Dann had said he had "feared" for his safety and claimed that Mr Kelly had said words to the effect 'I'm going to kill you'.
He said he feared a "potential ambush" further down the road and could not be sure if there were more people, so he turned his car around with the idea of driving away from the area.
However, after the jury found Dann not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter, Judge Johnson dismissed Dann's claims of self defence, describing events of that night as "dark" and "foul".
Judge Johnson said Dann had ‘shamefully called 999’ after the incident ‘not for Mr Kelly but to prepare your defence”’, adding ‘I cannot believe you didn’t tell the operator you had driven over someone’. He said Dann did not try to "nudge" Mr Kelly out of the way, did not use his horn to warn him and did not reverse and try to drive around him, adding "I reject the suggestion that there was any element of self defence in your actions".
He said he was sure Dann was "angry and affronted" by Mr Kelly and he "deliberately drove towards him, using your car as a weapon".
On Friday May 3 at the Court of Appeal in London, Dann's bid to appeal against his sentence was dismissed by Lord Justice Lewis, Mr Justice Goss and Judge Montgomery KC.
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