On 22nd March 2011 Christopher Grady received a life sentence. Mr Justice Lindblom told him he would serve a minimum term of 15 years. He was sentenced to ten years for the attempted murder of Ryan, to run concurrently.

The judge said: “What you did on the 11th of February 2010 would horrify anyone who is or has been the parent of a young child. It would horrify any right-thinking person.” The judge said: “ Those crimes were born of anger and self-pity.”

The judge read an extract from Miss Smith’s victim impact statement to the court in which she said: “I can see his (Ryan’s) suffering every day, he lost his best friend in the whole world, his sister who he always thought he would have…I miss her so much it hurts every day. The hurt, the pain, it will never go away.”

Died 14th February 2010

Gabrielle Grady (5) was killed by her father Christopher Grady (42) in February 2010.

In March 2011 Grady was found guilty of murder and attempted murder at Birmingham Crown Court after driving his car, with his two children in the back, into a river on 11 February 2010.

Grady had warned Kim Smith (37), his former partner and the children’s mother, that she had ten seconds to say goodbye to her children before he drove them into the River Avon, in Worcestershire, on February 11 2010. Gabrielle spent two hours submerged in the freezing river and died three days later. Her brother Ryan (6) was rescued by police.

The court heard that Grady had been engaged in a long-running custody battle for the children since the breakdown of his seven-year relationship with Smith, which was described as “volatile”. However, Grady had regular access to his children and had arranged for Gabrielle and Ryan to stay with him the night before Gabrielle’s murder. On the day of the tragedy Miss Smith had phoned Grady after the children had failed to turn up at school. He told her: “This is going to be a day you’ll never forget.”

Giving evidence, Miss Smith told the court that Grady had phoned her and then turned up outside her home in Evesham, Worcestershire,with the children in his car: She said: “He said ‘Be outside in ten seconds to say ta-ra to your kids.’

“Then he said: ‘They’re never going to school again, they’re coming with me.’ He was very angry. The last thing he shouted was ‘river’. His face was contorted. I jumped at the car’s back door but he went too fast. I believed he was going to drive my kids in the river.” She described his face as “contorted” and “vile” with anger.

Two witnesses told the trial at Birmingham Crown Court they saw Grady driving aggressively round in circles in a field by the river in Evesham, while his children banged on the windows screaming. Then he drove at speed into the river Avon.

Nicholas Langstone witnessed the moment the car plunged into the water. He told the court: “I could just make out the back end of the car,” he said. “There was somebody banging on the back window, I think it was a child. They were saying ‘help me, help me’.”

The court heard Grady faced personal and financial difficulties and had been evicted from his flat. He told doctors after his daughter’s death: “I’d had enough of my wife trying to take my kids away.” He also claimed it was an accident.

His adult daughter from a previous marriage told the court that the night before the incident her father had asked her whether she would look after the children if he went to prison. She said feared he was planning to harm Kim Smith, but not the children.

West Mercia police had been contacted six times about Grady’s behaviour before the murder. However, an investigation overseen by the Independent Police Complaints Commission ruled that officers could not have prevented the tragedy. The officer in charge of the case, Superintendent Steve Cullen, praised the two officers who rescued Ryan, adding: “I would like to mention the force’s admiration for Gabby and Ryan’s mum, Kim, and the rest of their family for the dignity and strength they have shown.”

The jury took five hours to deliver an 11-1 majority verdict that he intended to kill his children. The judge, Mr Justice Lindblom told Grady that he faced a mandatory life sentence.

After the court case had ended Ms Smith said:

“Although Christopher Grady is facing a deserved jail term, this does not take away the fact that myself and my family were robbed of our Gabby just over one year ago and that will stay. We are still living with the loss and devastation. What must also not be forgotten is what my son Ryan also went through on that day – not only the trauma of the events but that he also lost his sister, who was also his best friend.”

Professor David Wilson, a criminologist of Birmingham City University commented that Grady’s actions were not just a “simple emotional reaction to a particular set of circumstances”, but were an act of “revenge” on his former partner involving “a great deal of planning and forethought.”