Lorry driver spared jail for London cyclist death after husband's plea
A lorry driver who killed a cyclist in London has avoided prison after the woman's husband asked the judge not to jail him.
Mother-of-two Claire Hitier-Abadie, 36, was killed instantly when Alan Warwick failed to indicate left at a busy junction in Victoria, central London.
Warwick, 61, had previously tearfully apologised to her husband Pierre Abadie, the court heard.
He was sentenced to 160 hours unpaid work and handed a driving ban.
French-born Mrs Hitier-Abadie was set to catch a train from Victoria station to start a new job when she was crushed to death in February last year.
Warwick was distracted as he tidied the cab of his tipper truck during the morning rush-hour, Southwark Crown Court heard.
'Visible and obvious'
Mrs Hitier-Abadie died when the lorry turned at the junction of Bressenden Place and Victoria Street.
Prosecutor Ian Paton, said: "She was visible and obvious, her coat was billowing behind her as she moved, she was bare-legged."
Referring to a pre-sentence report, Mr Paton said: "It was a sustained period of inattention in circumstances that were ripe for the disaster that duly unfolded."
Warwick, of Rayleigh, Essex, admitted one count of causing death by careless driving and was given a 160-hour community order and banned from driving for a year.
Judge Peter Testar said: "A period of inadvertence took away one life and ravaged many more.
"I am comforted in the conclusion that I have reached that a non-custodial sentence is the correct one, by my knowledge that it is the one that Mr Abadie wanted me to reach."