A 23-year-old Nigerian student, Adele Okojie-Aidonojie, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison after two of her friends died in a car accident.
Reports say Okojie-Aidonojie had been driving while drunk and was going twice the speed limit before the crash. Her friends, 24-year-old Rida Boutjettif and 23-year-old Mary Macharia, were flung out of her convertible Mini Cooper in the accident that occurred in Battersea, South London. The pair died on the spot while a third passenger, Ben Sidibe, was injured.
Following a trial at the Old Bailey, the student from Bromley, was found guilty of two charges of causing death by dangerous driving and one of causing injury by dangerous driving.
Judge Richard Marks KC described her conduct as “sheer madness”, saying, “Especially [as] moments before the collision, your two passengers to your knowledge had been standing up dancing.”
He rejected the suggestion someone in the back had tugged her arm, saying: “It is clear there was one reason and one reason only for this collision, namely the grossly excessive speed you were travelling.”
The court had heard how the defendant’s car was doing at least 62mph in a 30mph zone before it crashed en route from Clapham to Ladbroke Grove early on 16 July 2022.
Sidibe told police that Jamaican music had been playing and he had taken a video of the two other passengers “twerking” in the back.
Okojie-Aidonojie reportedly told passersby not to call the police or ambulance. She later claimed the accident was a hit-and-run when police arrived.
In a letter read to the court, she later admitted the cause of her friends’ deaths, apologising and saying she missed them both.
She apologised to her then-boyfriend, Sidibe, saying she hoped he was able to move on, adding: “I never meant to hurt any of you.”
Macharia’s mother told the court that she had a “special bond” with her daughter who was “one in a million”.
Boutjettif’s family described how he had stepped up at the age of 16 after the death of his father, going to college and training to become a gas engineer.
