Coventry mother handed suspended sentence for helping son flee after murdering 'kind and loving' dad

A woman who helped her son leave the UK after he murdered a "kind and loving" father from Coventry, has been sentenced.

Faye Gowdy gave her son Ashley Donald money and brought him plane tickets to help him flee to Ireland, after he had hit Andrew Flamson while driving.

Mr Flamson, 40, died after he was hit by a Mondeo following a row about a drug debt on Grosvenor Road in July 2022.

Driver Ashley Donald was given a life sentence for murder last year.

Gowdy was given a 24-month suspended sentence.

In August this year, Bethany Donohue, of Albany Road in Coventry, was jailed for three years for helping her then-boyfriend Donald try to evade capture.

Police said that they had started the process to extradite Donald, but he returned to the UK in September and handed himself in at Coventry Police Station.

Officers arrested Gowdy at her home in Edgbaston and Donohue when she landed back in the UK at Birmingham Airport.

Donald was jailed for life for murder after Andrew Flamson died of head injuries three days after being knocked down by Donald. He was walking his dog at the time.

The three passengers in the car with Donald were also jailed for manslaughter.

Samuel Henneberry, Carl Tomlinson, and Callum Ayre were jailed for 15 years, 13 years and 12 years respectively.

Detective Inspector Tom Lyons from the West Midlands Police Major Crime Unit said:

"It was an awful case of a car being used as a weapon with devastating results. For anyone to then assist the perpetrator of such an act as they tried to evade justice is wholly unacceptable."

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