The mother of Archie Battersbee has been sentenced to prison after a court found she deliberately chased another motorist off the road, causing a serious crash.
Hollie Dance, 50, is the grief-stricken mum of Archie, the 12-year-old boy who died after his life support was switched off four years ago.
Dance had fought fiercely to overturn a High Court ruling that doctors could withdraw medical treatment.
She has now been jailed for four years for chasing another driver for 12 miles from Southend to Basilon, Essex, in October 2022, weeks after going to Archie’s funeral.
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She and her other son Thomas Summers, 26, who was tailing her in a rented Toyota chased their victim for miles. The victim, a chef, made a ‘frantic’ call to the police while trying to drive away.
During the pursuit Dance collided with the driver’s Peugot, forcing it to crash into a tree. Summers then struck the man with his rental car.
The victim fractured and dislocated his shoulder and fractured his foot after he was ejected from his car on impact.
He told the BBC: ‘I have never understood why I was targeted that night, and I often find myself overthinking what happened.’
Summers has also been sentenced to five years in prison.
The court heard that Dance and Summers believed the victim had been involved in an earlier attack on a family member.
They suspected he was responsible for an incident in which Dance’s daughter and Summers’ sister had allegedly been struck with a bottle.
Archie Battersbee had spent nearly five months in intensive care after suffering catastrophic brain damage in what was believed to be a social-media-related challenge. Doctors later concluded he was brain-stem dead.
His parents fought an intense legal battle to keep his life support in place. Despite numerous appeals, courts ruled that continuing treatment was not in Archie’s best interests. His life support was withdrawn, and he died in August 2022.
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During the trial, Dance’s barrister described her as someone whose life had been deeply affected by an unimaginable tragedy.
The court heard she had endured months of emotional turmoil and had undergone a mental health assessment shortly before the offences took place.
The prosecution also referred to Dance’s previous convictions, including actual bodily harm in 1996 and a drink-driving offence in 2017.
Summers’ lawyer argued that the chase was a spontaneous reaction rather than a carefully planned attack.
Sentencing the pair, Recorder Peter Clark acknowledged the devastating loss suffered by the family and the injury caused to another relative. However, he stressed that there are lawful ways to respond to wrongdoing.
He told the mother and son: ‘Your response was completely unlawful, you sought revenge,’ The Sun reported.
He told the BBC: ‘Two wrongs do not make a right, they never do. This was a determined, persistent, highly dangerous pursuit.’
Dance admitted a charge of dangerous driving and was also convicted of possessing a banned gas canister.
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