By Ren Deakin

THE WIDOW of a Kirriemuir man knocked down as he walked the family dog has spoken about her anger and frustration that the justice system has allowed the woman who killed her husband to walk the streets little more than a year after being convicted.

“I didn’t want to talk to the press, but I feel I’ve been let down by everybody else—the system doesn’t do anything for victims,” she said.

Lynn McGregor received a letter, dated October 13, that informed her Ashley Smith, the driver who killed her husband, has been “assigned low supervision status” and is eligible for “unescorted temporary release” just 13 months after being convicted of the crime.

On June 24, 2007, Colin McGregor was walking his labrador when he was hit by Smith’s car just yards from his house.

Her Vauxhall Astra mounted the pavement before glancing off a wall, striking the father of two, and throwing him into trees, killing him instantly.

The car came to rest embedded in a lamp-post,

A sample taken from Smith showed traces of cannabis and ecstasy in her blood.

Following her first court appearance Smith was remanded in custody but released on appeal.

“The fiscal didn’t tell me about her release then, it was friends who let me know after they saw her.

“What kind of justice is that?” Mrs McGregor asked.

“After she was released it took 15 months for the case to come to trial and during that time I saw her driving around, I saw her at the school—it’s not right.”

Smith pleaded guilty to causing Mr McGregor’s death by driving dangerously on the A926 while under the influence of controlled drugs and alcohol and was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment at the High Court in Aberdeen.

“She pled guilty at the last possible minute and has never shown any remorse,” Mrs McGregor said.

“With the sentence I thought I could put my feelings in a box, but six weeks after she was put in jail I got a letter saying she was going to appeal.”

Her sentence was reduced by two years after appeal judges found the original trial judge placed her case in the most serious category of sentencing guidelines.

The appeal judges decided he was in error and Smith’s crime should be regarded in a lesser category.

“So what was the use of the first judge?” Mrs McGregor asked.

“Is it that he can’t do his job properly so two more judges have to check his work, how much does that cost?

“She gets appeal after appeal, where’s my appeal?

“And there’s this,” Mrs McGregor said, referring to the latest letter—“she’s been inside just over a year and she’s allowed out, she’s going out shopping, seeing her family.

“It’s relentless—I’ve not had the chance to grieve.”