WHAT to make of Harry Clarke? It’s difficult to say, definitively, because the man won’t speak.
I know what I’d like to say to him. “I saw a woman die, Harry, and often, at certain triggers - the sound of a manhole cover clanking, the yellow cross hatching on tarmac - I see her die again.
“How dare you put me through that?”
What a selfish question that is. I dislike Mr Clarke’s selfishness because it has affected me in turn, makes me selfish.
READ MORE: Glasgow bin lorry crash driver avoids jail for motoring offence
In Court Seven yesterday I saw Henry Clarke, as he is on official documents, waiting for sentencing. How cool the man looked, how calm. Not a care in the world.
It was just as during the Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) into 2014’s Glasgow bin lorry crash that killed six people. He seemed cool then too. I remember my jaw slackening slightly when he told the court he had eaten a chicken and mushroom Pot Noodle on the day of the incident. “I’ve never had one since.”
What an extraordinarily ill judged statement. He is comfortable enough to get behind the wheel of a vehicle knowing the carnage that has occurred, but the thought of a Pot Noodle makes him balk.
We know Clarke has worked in a series of low paid jobs. We know, thanks to tabloid stalking, he buys multipacks of crisps from Asda Parkhead. We know colleagues described him as a “lovely old guy”.
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We have repeatedly been told that Clarke is not an educated man, that he left school at 15. It doesn’t take an education to know right from wrong. It doesn’t require book learning for remorse to prompt caution.
It is his lack of caution that makes him seem unrepentant for his actions. A man who has previously fallen unconscious at the wheel, as we heard during the FAI, should not take on work driving a heavy vehicle. A man who has taken on work driving a heavy vehicle, falls unconscious at the wheel and causes the deaths of six people should not then drive a car.
The legality of it almost seems a frippery compared to the morality of it.
But the legality of it is, of course, not a frippery. Yesterday Clarke was sentenced for culpable and reckless driving, having admitted driving a car despite his licence being revoked for medical reasons. He was given a three year driving ban, 12 month supervision order with 150 hours’ unpaid work and a four month restriction of liberty order. For those, like me, who felt he swerved justice following the bin lorry crash, this was a second chance. But he was not jailed because he is a first offender.
His defence agent says he is punished outside of the court: he lives as a recluse due to the publicity, he and his daughter received threats on social media, he cannot work and receives benefits.
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I believe in rehabilitation, not retributive justice. However, I find it hard to believe that a man who keeps persisting in the same wrongdoing will take heed of the court. I find it impossible to sympathise with him.
All those people, and all those lives. I was only a witness and a basic first aider on December 22 2014. No one precious to me was injured or lost. And yet I’m furious at Clarke’s continued silence.
I want to understand his actions but it is impossible in his silence. His actions speak to having no remorse, his seeming lack of remorse has exhausted goodwill.
It would help to hear his explanation and perhaps even help him too.
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