A British man was found guilty on Wednesday of killing two Israelis, a father and daughter, and injuring her husband and their two children in an August hit-and-run in Ramsgate, Kent, in southeast England, UK media reported.
Nitesh Bissendary, 30 years old, was sentenced to 16 years in prison after admitting to fleeing the scene of the accident due to possession of a class-A drug. The Brit later returned to the scene and was found with traces of cocaine in his system. He was found guilty of causing the two deaths by dangerous driving.
According to UK media, Bissendary was previously convicted of driving under the influence of cocaine.
Who were the Israelis killed in the Ramsgate hit-and-run?
78-year-old Yoram Hirshfeld, a professor at Tel Aviv University, and his daughter Noga Sella, 40, were the two Israelis killed in the incident. Sella’s husband, Omer, and their two children aged six and eight respectively were also injured in the hit-and-run.
According to the British court, Sella’s six-year-old daughter suffered serious head injuries as a result of the ramming.
Signage is seen at the abandoned passenger terminal at the Port of Ramsgate in Kent, southeast Britain, January 7, 2019 (credit: REUTERS/TOBY MELVILLE)Hirshfeld was in the UK to visit his daughter, who resided with her family in Cambridge. Sella was pregnant at the time of her death.
In last Wednesday’s court hearing, Judge Simon James reportedly told the accused that the “severe psychological impact will remain with all three survivors for the rest of their lives.
“When you initially ran from the scene you knew full well you had run people over,” the judge told Bissendary.
A drug-driver who caused the deaths of a pregnant woman and her father in #Ramsgate has been jailed for 16 years. Click the link for more information - https://t.co/sqtxqtpDpv pic.twitter.com/sWR581JI8Z
— Kent Police (UK) (@kent_police) December 8, 2022
Victims' wife, mother: No words to describe loss
“Three families have been shattered,” a statement from the victims’ mother and wife Judy Hirshfeld read, the BBC reported. “There are no words to describe the devastating loss of my daughter and husband... the sorrow and hardship are profound.
“Noga’s children now have to learn how to grow up without a mother and we are also mourning the loss of her unborn baby,” BBC quoted her as saying.
