THE family of a grandfather who was knocked down and killed by a university technician have hit out at the driver for appealing against her sentence.
Mervyn Taylor, 56, was riding his motorbike on the A9 on April 21 last year when Mona Rahman crashed into him in her Jeep.
Ms Rahman, 60, of Greendyke Street, Glasgow, failed to see the motorbike leading a line of traffic near to the junction for Blair Atholl.
The technician, who works at Glasgow University, admitted causing death by careless driving and was last month sentenced to 250 hours unpaid work and disqualified from driving for three years.
However, she has now launched an appeal against her sentence in a move that has angered Mr Taylor's family.
His son Vincent said: "The whole family is very upset by this, it's all we've been thinking and talking about.
"For her to stand up in court and say sorry and show remorse, only to drag the family back through this again, we are completely gobsmacked.
"It feels like she put on this facade in court in order to get a more lenient sentence.
"She got community service and a driving ban - we've lost a member of our family who we loved dearly.
"For her to appeal against that sentence is unbelievable."
Mr Taylor, a carpenter, was returning to his home in Norfolk from the Christening of a family friend in the north of Scotland - where he and his wife were named as Godparents - when he was hit by Ms Rahman.
He travelled separately from his family because he was keen biker and wanted to use his motorcycle.
His daughter Joanne Green told how this was the second road death in the family after her sister was killed 14 years ago by a driver who was jailed for causing her death.
She claimed that Ms Rahman was aware the family had already been through the heartache of a road death and subsequent court proceedings and questioned why she would seek to prolong things even further in this case.
"This is just a kick in the teeth to the family," she said. "All she got was community service and driving ban - does she not even think his life was worth that?
"We're not sure exactly what she's unhappy about, but surely she was expecting a driving ban? She killed someone while driving carelessly. It's baffling really.
"We've all been through this before sadly and I'm sure this was mentioned during the court proceedings. She knows this and she's still appealing. It's heartless."
The sheriff who sentenced Ms Rahman, Lindsay Foulis, described the case as a tragedy for all of the parties involved.
Passing sentence at Perth Sheriff Court last month, he said: "Your counsel correctly makes the observation that no penalty I impose can undo the tragic events of April 21 last year.
"An accident such as this can also be described as a tragedy for the person responsible because they had no intention to cause the tragic consequences.
"The level of carelessness was within the category of a momentary lapse."
Fiscal depute Robbie Brown said witnesses confirmed that Mr Taylor, a father of five, had been driving safely and within the 60mph speed limit shortly before the accident.
Rahman admitted failing to give way when leaving the road and driving across the A9 into the path of his motorcycle, killing him instantly.
Mr Taylor's family travelled to Scotland for Ms Rahman's sentencing and said that while they would have liked her to receive a tougher sentence, they accepted it and were looking to move on with their lives.
Miss Green said: "We all thought it was finally over but now we've got to go through this as well.
"Nothing's going to change the fact that we've lost dad, but this case has already taken months and this only adds to our heartache. It just adds insult to injury."
Ms Rahman declined to comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel