A DISTRAUGHT mother has slammed the sentence given to the speeding driver who knocked over and killed her nine-year-old son after he ran out onto a road.

Ethan Owens was hit by Zoe Bennison’s Range Rover as he returned from a trip to McDonalds with a friend in Hartlepool near to where he lived.

Bennison was estimated to have been travelling between 38mph and 47mph as she drove along the 30mph A179 Marina Way on February 27 this year.

The 26-year-old defendant, who admitted causing death by careless driving, was given a nine month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months by Judge Howard Crowson at Teesside Crown Court.

Ethan’s mother Lisa Cooper was overcome with emotion during the sentencing hearing and had to abandon an attempt to read out part of a victim impact statement.

The sobbing mother-of-seven shouted out as she left court: “She [Bennison] is going to walk out of here and enjoy her life and my son can’t”.

Another family member said: “Absolute disgrace”.

Nine-year-old Ethan, who wished to be a fireman when he was older, was described as a “little ball of energy” and known for his love of steak and roast dinners.

Prosecutor Harry Hadfield said the victim and his friend had successfully used a pedestrian crossing to cross one side of the carriageway.

But after reaching the refuge the friend then ran across the other carriageway into the middle of the road while the traffic lights were on green and the “red man was on”.

Ethan, a pupil at Jesmond Gardens Primary School, in Hartlepool, then followed, but “either failed to see or misjudged the speed of the approaching vehicle”, said Mr Hadfield.

The prosecutor said pedestrian error was a major cause of the accident, but Bennison’s excess speed was also a factor and there was no evidence she had taken evasive action.

Several witnesses saw the collision, which was reported to the emergency services at about 5.40pm, and one claimed Bennison’s Range Rover had overtaken him at speed and was being driven “excessively fast”.

The young boy was said to have been “propelled into the air” after colliding with the front of the Range Rover.

Two off-duty police officers and a passing paramedic tried to administer medical treatment and Ethan was transferred to Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital with injuries to his head, pelvis and spine but died just over a week later.

Following her arrest Bennison, of Hylton Close, Hartlepool, described Ethan “darting out” into traffic. She said she had braked when the first boy ran across the road and then carried on driving. She also believed she had been within the speed limit.

Ethan’s father Paul Owens said in a statement read to the court that the family had to endure Ethan wired to a machine to keep him alive and described it as “hell on earth”.

He said: “We were with him at the point the machine was switched off. No parent should have to see their child die.”

Mr Owens, a gas fitter, added: “There is a void in our lives that can never be filled.”

Michael Knowles, mitigating, said there was nothing to be gained from jailing Bennison, who he described as a hard working lady who had expressed genuine remorse.

Mr Knowles claimed the estimates of Bennison’s speed “cannot be tested”, but that she would have to live with the fact that had she acted differently Ethan’s death may not have happened.

Judge Crowson said Bennison had thought Ethan was not following his friend and reapplied her foot to the accelerator.

He said Bennison would live a life with guilt and nothing he could impose would exceed that punishment.

The judge said there was strong personal mitigation on the defendant’s behalf, with several references being handed into the court.

As well as the suspended jail sentence, she was disqualified from driving for two years.