Heartache of woman cleared of death crash

Rosie-Ann Stone, 21, was found not guilty last month of causing the death of Jennie Stone, 28, by careless driving.

The sisters’ family had campaigned against the prosecution saying they had suffered enough following the death of Private Gregg Stone, of the 3rd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment, who was shot while on active service in June 2012, and then the death of Jennie last year.

This week the girls’ parents, Angela and Bob Stone met Martin Goldman, chief prosecutor of CPS Yorkshire and Humberside to discuss why they had prosecuted her. It has emerged that Jennie’s partner David Parker had wanted the prosecution to go ahead, although none of her family did.

Mrs Stone said they had been given no answers. In a letter to the Attorney-General making a formal complaint against the Crown Prosecution Service in Hull, Mrs Stone laid out her doubts about the evidence presented in court and asked whether it justified “11 months of sheer hell”.

She said the family faced being further broken because Rosie-Ann “now feels she has to move away and try to rebuild her life where hopefully no one will know her and feel the need to judge her or have minsinformed opinions of her.” She said the family had no time to come to terms with Pte Stone’s death, before their daughter died the following February, and now they didn’t know how to begin to grieve, adding: “The natural grieving process is no longer available to us.” In a statement Mr Goldman said they believed “there was sufficient evidence and that it was in the public interest to prosecute Rosie-Ann, but we acknowledge that this is a decision that Mr and Mrs Stone find hard to accept.”