by A woman who stole a vulnerable man’s mobility scooter, dragged him to the ground and “cruelly” left him to die in freezing conditions has been jailed.
Kimberley Ann Hawkins, 41, has already admitted killing Neil Shadwick after he took his scooter outside a Tesco supermarket in Gloucestershire on January 22 last year.
Hawkins ran off on the scooter, dragging the father-of-two and clinging to him for up to a minute, before dumping the vehicle on Old Bisley Road in Stroud, where it was found by a member of the public at around 8am. .
Mr Shadwick, 63, who used his mobility scooter as a form of transport, was left in sub-zero temperatures overnight and found unresponsive in the car park in Stratford Road, Stroud, hours later at 6am. He later died in hospital.
Gloucestershire Police described the defendant’s actions as “sick” and said she knew Mr Shadwick, who had severe Parkinson’s disease, was “extremely vulnerable”.
Hawkins, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter, as well as charges of aggravated vehicular manslaughter, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, in relation to Mr Shadwick’s death.
She was jailed for six years and six months at Gloucester Crown Court on Thursday – for the three offenses relating to Mr Shadwick’s death as well as other separate charges.
Sentencing Hawkins, Judge Peter Blair KC, the Recorder of Bristol, described the sequence of events that led the defendant to kill Mr Shadwick as “appalling”.
Noting that a neighbor had described Hawkins as a regular visitor to Mr Shadwick’s home since late 2021, the judge said: “The fact of the matter is that you extorted, or sought to extort, money from him, in order to must be nurtured to fuel your drug habit. .
“What we have seen in court is the horrible vision of you going to one shop then a cash point for him to get money out and give it to you, [before] it was clear he wasn’t going to get any money out.”
Said Mr. “You dragged him behind you for quite some time,” said the judge, describing Hawkins as a “blind eye” and Mr Shadwick as correspondingly “abrasions”, before letting him go and Hawkins driving off.
“You knew he was a very vulnerable man,” the judge told the defendant. “He was left there for three hours without being able to get help in freezing.”
In a victim impact statement read to the court on her behalf, Mr Shadwick’s sister described her brother as “obviously a vulnerable man” and said of his killing: “Neil was taken from us all so suddenly and cruelly.”
She was informed that the CCTV footage of the incident had been shown. “I was horrified and have had flashbacks and nightmares ever since,” she said. “Neil did not deserve to be treated and abandoned in this way – no one does.”
The court heard that Hawkins and Mr Shadwick went to two cash points at around 2.30am to get money, after a sexual encounter.
CCTV showed the pair riding together on the scooter as they arrived at the second cash point at the Tesco supermarket.
Hawkins gets up and Mr Shadwick is seen getting out of the seat and supporting himself with the scooter as he uses the cash machine.
She then suddenly jumps into the seat and speeds away, leaving Mr. Shadwick holding onto him as he is dragged out of the store.
Other footage shows Mr Shadwick holding on and kicking his legs as Hawkins escapes, causing his trousers to come off.
He falls out near a Tesco petrol station and then takes about 12 minutes to swim back to the cash to get his bank card back before he falls to the ground.
Supermarket staff who arrived for work at around 5.45am found Mr Shadwick unconscious outside and alerted the emergency services.
Drifting in and out of consciousness, Mr Shadwick was able to tell them “Kim” and “robbery” before being taken to hospital, where he died later that day.
Hawkins, who was wearing a coat, scarf, hat and gloves as the temperature was around minus 4C, abandoned the scooter on Old Bisley Road after the battery ran out.
Mary Cowe, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Shadwick was “extremely vulnerable” and lived in supported accommodation in Stroud, relying on carers to visit him four times a day.
She said: “[Hawkins] she did what she did out of a fit of pique. He was selfish and spiteful but not premeditated. She told a friend that she had done sexual favors for Mr Shadwick and he could not pay.”
