A FORMER Swanley childminder found guilty of killing a Bexleyheath pensioner after leaving the handbrake off her car in Bluewater car park has narrowly avoided prison.

Judge Charles Byers told 50-year-old Dawn Chedd this morning he believes she “genuinely grieves” for her victim as he suspended her prison sentence.

Chedd, of Cranleigh Drive, had parked her automatic Vauxhall Zafira in a bay in level one of the blue area car park at Bluewater on January 4 last year, with a friend's two-year-old child in the back.

While the car was still in reverse gear and the handbrake was not set it reversed from the bay at a speed of between 15 and 20mph in a tight arc, colliding with four parked vehicles before it ran over 71-year-old Claire Bishop, who lived in Romney Gardens, Bexleyheath.

Chedd was handed a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

She must also carry out 200 hours unpaid work, pay £2,500 in costs and has been banned from driving for two years.

Judge Byers said: “A woman who was a loving wife, mother and grandmother who had much to offer, I am told, lost her life.

"We may never know what caused that tragic incident which lead to Mrs Claire Bishop's death and no sentence I pass now can restore her to her family.

"Your vehicle swerved out of control in a sudden severe arc from its parking space.

"You can remember nothing of the incident and Mr Bishop sadly had to witness his wife being run over but I do believe as you have always expressed it that you do genuinely grieve for Mrs Bishop and her family.

"I therefore accept that you are a person who genuinely expresses remorse despite the fact that this matter was tried."

In mitigation, Matthew Radstone said: “I have never represented anyone who has suffered post-conviction in the way Chedd has done.

"She is suicidal and nothing less than that.

“She is taking medication and she is totally and utterly, as of course you would expect, beside herself.

"To take a wife, a mother, a grandmother away again from her family in my submission is not appropriate given the circumstances of this case."

Mrs Bishop had been on a three-hour shopping spree with her husband Roy and was walking back to her car at the time of the fatal incident.

She suffered serious injuries after becoming partially trapped under the car in a pool of her own blood and died in King's College Hospital in London at 8.40am on January 9.

Chedd denied the charge of causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving but it took jurors less than an hour to find her guilty following a one-week trial at Maidstone Crown Court.

News Shopper reported last week how her 76-year-old father Ted begged his daughter to plead guilty to the charge rather than put Mrs Bishop’s family through a trial.