A DEVASTATED husband has hit out at the ‘selfish, self-centred coward’ who looked into his dead wife’s car after ploughing into it at high speed and fled from the scene.
A jury at Warwick Crown Court heard that by leaving Gina Johnson, from Meriden, dead in her car which then burst into flames, callous Nicky Gosal robbed her of her wish to be an organ donor.
The jury, some of them in tears as distraught Philip Johnson read out his statement, took just 58 minutes to find Gosal guilty of causing Gina’s death by dangerous driving.
He had denied the charge, although he had admitted causing 44-year-old Gina’s death in December last year by driving while disqualified and without insurance.
Gosal (27) of Sunbury Court, Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, who also had a flat in Winsford Avenue, Coventry, was jailed for eight years and banned from driving for ten years.
The court had heard Gina was making a right turn out of Washbrook Lane, Coventry, at just after 7am when her Smart car was hit by Gosal driving his girlfriend’s powerful Mercedes SLK 250 AMG Sport, driven along Windmill Hill towards Browns Lane at 50mph.
Prosecutor Malcolm Morse said: “Georgina Johnson, as a kind of mercy, was killed outright by multiple injuries sustained in the crash.
“The car she was driving caught fire, but she was dead before the fire.”
“The defendant says Georgina Johnson pulled out in front of him. She undoubtedly did.
“Had he been driving at anything like the speed limit, she would have made it to her proper side of the main road safely. He says he was driving at less than 30; we say that simply can’t be true.”
The Mercedes hit the Smart car in a ‘pretty much head-on’ collision, shunting the smaller car backwards a number of metres and sending debris flying.
The Mercedes then veered across the road and hit a wall in Butt Lane before spinning back into Windmill Hill.
Gosal went over to the Smart car and saw Gina, who was already dead, inside – and ran to his girlfriend Amy Hall’s home before heading to Coventry railway station where he was arrested.
After the jury returned its guilty verdict, but cleared him of taking the Mercedes without consent, the court heard Gosal had a conviction for excess alcohol after crashing a car, and for dangerous driving escaping from the police in a stolen ice cream van following a burglary.
Mr Morse read out a statement by Gina’s parents Dorette and Enos Gordon descibing Gina a ‘loving daughter’ who was ‘bright, compassionate and caring,’ and always there to lend a hand.
Faltering at times, Philip Johnson said: “Gina will always be the love of my life. I cannot even begin to describe her as a person and how much joy and wonder she brought into my life. I am not sure how she did it, but she managed to make every day feel magical.
“Her life was taken only an hour since we last kissed. She was far too young. I wanted my whole life to be with her.
“.. I can take no comfort from the way Gina died, or should I say the way the defendant killed her. He has shown no remorse, only extreme self-centred selfishness.
“He left my wife to die after causing horrific fatal injuries… They are the actions of a selfish, self-centred coward.
“.. My wife was a registered organ donor. The defendant’s actions have denied her this wish.
Gosal’s barrister Justin Houston-Roberts said: “There is nothing I can say or do to comfort the family.”
Jailing Gosal, Recorder Sam Mainds told him: “Her life has been stolen from those we have heard from and the rest of her family.
“You put the family through six days of a trial, and they have suffered every day a repeat of what happened as you tried to wriggle out of it.”
