Birmingham mother convicted of trying to help killer son evade capture

The mother and partner of a man who killed a father when he hit him in a car have been sentenced for trying to help him evade capture. Faye Gowdy from Edgbaston helped her son Ashley Donald flee the country two days after killing Andrew Flamon.

Donald was driving a silver Mondeo when he deliberately drove the wrong way on Grosvenor Road, a one-way street in Coventry, and fatally struck the father as he walked his dog just before 11pm on 12 July 2022. Mr Flamson, who was 40, died. three days later in hospital due to catastrophic head injuries.

Gowdy and his partner Bethany Donohue then offered him money and bought tickets as he fled to Ireland. Detectives used detailed phone work, CCTV analysis and verified bank transactions to plot what was going on.

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On July 19, officers arrested Gowdy at her home in Edgbaston, and when Donohue landed back at Birmingham Airport the same day, she too was detained. Donald’s extradition from Ireland was also instigated, but he returned to the UK in September and handed himself in at Coventry police station.

Following a trial in May last year, Donald was jailed for life and ordered to serve at least 23 years after being convicted of Mr Flamson’s murder. Three other men who were also in the car at the time were convicted of manslaughter and were each sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison.

Gowdy, 44, of Carpenter Road, Edgbaston, and Donohue, 23, of Albany Road, Coventry, were both convicted of assisting an offender on Monday (July 1). They are due to be heard on August 12 at Leamington Crown Court.

Det Insp Tom Lyons, said: “This was a horrific case of a car being used as a weapon with devastating results. For anyone to then assist the perpetrator of such an act while attempting to evade justice is completely unacceptable. “And we have no qualms about bringing both women who tried to do just that to justice.”