A MOTHER whose daughter was killed when she was hit by a car in New York City has strongly criticised police for their “botched” investigation.

Linda Heyworth said it meant there could not be “any justice for my talented, beautiful young daughter”, whom she felt was treated with “disdain” by the New York Police Department (NYPD).

She spoke out as the East Sussex coroner leading the inquest into the death of Clara Heyworth, 28, also criticised the information about the death sent to him by authorities in the US.

Ms Heyworth, who had moved to New York to work alongside her husband at a publishing firm, was hit by a car as she crossed the road in Brooklyn in the early hours of July 10, 2011.

The 28-year-old marketing manager suffered serious head injuries and was pronounced dead a day later in hospital.

Her family say police did not investigate the scene until four days after the crash, after crucial potential evidence was lost.

Her mother, from Lewes, said on Thursday: “Because of this lack of investigation by the NYPD the District Attorney failed to prosecute and so there can never really be any justice for my talented, beautiful young daughter.

“Following on from that tragic night she was afforded no dignity, respect or care from the police.

“In a conversation with the police I was told that my daughter’s ‘petite body’ may have contributed to her appalling injuries rather than the excessive speed of the driver.”

The inquest into her death held on Thursday heard how police at the scene believed the driver of the Honda 2008, Anthony Webb, smelled of alcohol and said he blew over the limit in a breath test one hour after the crash.

But he refused further testing and the initial test was discounted because the breathalyser had not been calibrated recently enough.

He was convicted in 2012 of unlicensed driving and driving without an insurance card, after pleading guilty.

The judge at that hearing reportedly criticised the District Attorney for not bringing more serious charges to trial, and told Mr Webb to do a course for drink-drivers.

At the inquest, East Sussex chief coroner Alan Craze said the information he had been sent about the death from the criminal court in New York was “almost sublimely unhelpful”.

He read out most of the records he had been sent, mostly police arrest records, saying there was “a lot of form-filling over the arrest but nothing that begins to tell me how the accident happened”.

He added: “I am going through this as it is the only way I can say in public everything I have had from the US, and impliedly people can see what I could have expected to have and what I have had.”

Police records said the driver told officers that Ms Heyworth had ran across the road and he did not have time to stop.

On Thursday, Mr Craze recorded an inquest verdict of road traffic collision.

HUSBAND WATCHES AS WIFE IS MOWED DOWN BY DRIVER IN NEW YORK STREET

CLARA and her husband shared the cooking for friends on the evening of July 9 at their flat in Brooklyn’s young and trendy Bedford district. 

Described in a city paper as “one of the most beloved couples in New York publishing”, the pair had married around two years earlier and worked for independent publishing company Verso Books. 

Clara, 28, who had started off at the company’s London office, was becoming known for the “legendary parties” she threw the company in her adopted city and for her strident editorial views.  

The group played cards at home after dinner before stepping out after midnight into the quiet New York summer’s night to a bar around nearby Vanderbilt Avenue, a main road cutting north to south. 

Clara was in two minds about going into the bar, loitering outside and chatting to a friend, eventually deciding to go home. She crossed to the other side of Vanderbilt to make her way back to the flat. 

Still a stranger to the couple, 43-year-old Anthony Webb had, meanwhile, had disregarded his lack of a valid driving licence and clambered behind the wheel of his wife’s Honda 2008. 

Noticeably smelling of alcohol, he barrelled south along Vanderbilt, one of the few cars on the road, at approaching 2am. 

Realising his wife was not coming into the bar, Mr Stevens stepped out to walk her home. He saw her standing on the other side of the road.  

“My memories of what happened to her at the point when she was killed are fragmented,” he told at his wife’s inquest. 

“I am told that this was a result of the trauma.

 “I saw her from the other side of the road and she turned around and was going to cross to my side of the road.

“I think I might have heard her call my name. So the road was, as far as I know, empty. It was a calm night, no rain or anything. 

“I can hear the sound of the car screeching and I can hear the impact.”

Mr Webb and his Honda screeched to a halt and ended up 40-50 yards down the road. Clara was unconscious in the street. A resident looking out of the window of a nearby flat made one of several 999 calls. Mr Stevens sprang to his wife’s side. 

Police arrived, noting that Mr Webb had an “odour” of alcohol. He told officers a woman had ran across the street and he had not had a chance to stop. Mr Stevens does not think his wife was running. 

An hour later, Mr Webb blew over the limit. Officers asked if he had been drinking. He “stated in sum and substance that he had not drunk any alcohol,” they recorded. 

Clara, meanwhile, was taken by ambulance to the city’s Bellevue Hospital, unconscious and dying. But she had not died yet, and at 2.59am, the formal investigation into the scene that would have been required by a death was called off. At 3.07am, officers arrested Webb on suspicion of a misdemeanour, a crime for which a sentence of more than one year cannot be imposed.

Her husband followed Clara’s ambulance in a police car. With serious head injuries, she was pronounced dead a day later.  Three days later, he believes, a formal investigation into the crash began. 

For her mother Linda Heyworth, thousands of miles away in Lewes, Clara’s death set in motion a four-year fight for justice alongside Mr Stevens. After four years with “little rest and consolation”, she feels she has lost. 

Mrs Heyworth feels she was misled by the NYPD about their investigation from the outset. She outlined some of her frustrations in an email to her son-in-law in 2013, after a conference call with police. 

“They denied that any indicators about speed could have been gained from examination of the car,” she wrote. 

“They said the black box could not be released initially because of protecting trade secrets but later conceded they could have got access to this sort of evidence.

“They smelt alcohol on the driver’s breath and smelt in the car but could not explain why he was not breathalysed until an hour after the accident. All they could say is they followed the correct protocol.

“I was left convinced that something was being hidden from me.”

Both she and Mr Stevens believe what happened to Clara was not in isolation, and say the NYPD needs to change the way it investigates and records road crashes. 

“The car still reigns supreme in American society,” Mrs Heyworth said after her daughter’s inquest. “It appears the police seem to treat traffic deaths less seriously than other violence. 

“I am saying all this in order to protect others from the bewildering situation in which we found ourselves. I believe that we were misled by the NYPD from the start.”

In 2012 Mr Stevens was in a New York court room to see the man who knocked down and killed his wife get handed a £250 fine and told to attend a drink-driver course. He could have been given a maximum of 15 days in prison for the charges that were eventually brought. 

 “I spoke to the court and attempted to get the judge to place the maximum penalty,” Mr Stevens wrote to his mother-in-law. “But it did not work. Webb stood impassively throughout.”

Mrs Heyworth remembers her “honourable, compassionate and hard-working” daughter who “had so much to contribute” to America.

“But she was ultimately treated with disdain,” she said.

DRIVER SAYS ‘SORRY’ FOR KILLING CLARA

THE DRIVER who knocked down Clara Heyworth recently wrote to her husband, accepting his responsibility over the death. 

In a letter to Jacob Stevens which was read at his wife’s inquest, Mr Webb said: “I sincerely regret striking and killing your wife Cara. I did not have a valid licence at the time and should not have been driving.”

He says his licence has been removed and he will “never again drive unless properly licensed”. 

He added: “As you know the police collected evidence that I had been drinking alcohol. 

“While the District Attorney did not proceed with DWI (driving while intoxicated) charges, the judge in the criminal court recognised the evidence of drinking and driving and ordered me to attend a programme and change my behaviour. 

“I completed that and I will never drink and drive so long as I live.

“I recognise that my actions were negligent and that I am responsible for Clara’s death.  My wife and I want you to understand that we take your loss seriously.”