A Father's grief at the death of his daughter has turned into a determination to get a change in the law. PAUL HOUSTON spoke to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph about his fight. . .

IN the days after losing his 12-year-old daughter Amy, Paul Houston made a silent vow that, come what may, some good would come from her death.

The promise was made after the schoolgirl was knocked down by an Iraqi who had failed in his bid for asylum in the UK and who had already been banned from driving.

It has since transformed itself into a campaign to get a change in the law.

Despite being the driver of the car which knocked down Amy, there was no evidence to support a charge of dangerous driving.

He was sentenced to four months in jail in December after pleading guilty to charges of driving while disqualified, driving without insurance and failing to stop after an accident. He had fled the scene, leaving Amy pinned under the car.

Firefighters rescued her but she later died in hospital. The result of the case prompted Paul, who has been off from his job at Corus in Blackburn since his daughter's death, to call for a change in the law.

He said: "If you carry a gun without a licence and you shoot someone, you can't say 'I didn't mean to do it' or deny that it is manslaughter.

"I should think the same should apply to people who drive their cars while disqualified. They have been disqualified for a reason, normally because they have done something wrong or are considered a danger to the public.

"If they then drive and hit someone, or kill them, they should be punished as if it is manslaughter. When they get behind the wheel, they are immediately doing something wrong. They are driving a lethal weapon made up of a ton of metal.

"It doesn't matter that the man who knocked down my daughter was an asylum seeker, what matters is that he got behind the wheel while disqualified and had he not done that, my daughter would probably still be alive today."

At the court hearing connected to Amy's death, it was revealed that Ibrahim was already on bail for offences of driving while disqualified and was subject to two separate disqualifications, one imposed in June and the other in October.

He has made a further appearance in court to be sentenced for another charge of disqualified driving committed before he knocked Amy down.

Paul said: "If I have to get my picture in the paper every day to get a change, then so be it. But I feel a massive sense of injustice that I've lost my daughter because someone disqualified from driving was on the road.

"These cases seem to be happening all the time and it is almost as if people disqualified from driving feel they aren't really doing anything wrong. But it's wrecked my life."

Amy was a pupil at Our Lady and St John's High School in Blackburn and lived with her mother, Joanne Cocker, in Ravenglass Close, Blackburn. She is buried at Pleasington Cemetery, where her funeral was held on December 3 last year.

Pictures of Amy adorn the walls of the front room at Paul's home in Russia Street, Accrington. He said: "I don't expect to get a change overnight, but I won't give up. It was the most horrendous thing in the world to see my daughter lying in Blackburn Royal Infirmary with the doctors saying there was nothing more they could do and asking us if they should turn her life-support machine off.

"That is something no parent should have to go through. My daughter had her whole life ahead of her and the man who was driving the car got four months in prison."

Paul's campaign comes at a time when the Government is reviewing traffic-related offences, although the Home Office has said looking at offences relating to disqualification is not on the agenda.

Paul hopes that will change, and has enlisted the help of Blackburn MP Jack Straw, whose constituency covers Newfield Drive on the Fishmoor Estate, where Amy was knocked down.

He is also being backed by his local MP, Hyndburn's Greg Pope. Mr Straw has written to the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith to outline his concerns. A response stated that, while Lord Goldsmith was sorry to learn about the tragedy, he felt it was important to wait until the outcome of the traffic offences review.

Mr Pope said: "There is clearly a loophole here. I think the Government should look at an offence causing death by dangerous driving covering people who drive while disqualified and without documents. This should have heavy penalties.

"People who kill while driving when they have no legal right to be behind the wheel deserve to be severely punished."

Paul is also contacting families who have suffered similar tragedies. Mr Straw said he would continue working with Paul and his mother, Amy's grandmother, Margaret Houston, who said: "To have a child die before you is one thing, but to lose your grandchild is awful. We feel we need to do something to make sure other people don't feel the same sense of injustice in the future."The RAC Foundation, which campaigns for motorists, also feels that Paul's campaign has some merit.