A 28-YEAR-OLD IRISHMAN has been jailed for 13 years and one month for dangerous driving causing the death of a woman in Wales.
Michael Connors, of Landen Road in Ballyfermot, Dublin, was also sentenced for causing serious injury by dangerous driving to the woman’s husband and a teenage girl.
On 24 March 2025, Connors was driving a silver Mercedes car when he fled police and collided with a Toyota car in the suburb of Hightown in Wrexham.
Lydia La Polla (47), who was driving the Toyota car, died from her injuries in Stoke hospital two days later.
Her husband, who was a passenger in the car, was seriously injured in the collision.
Connors and another male in the silver Mercedes fled the scene of the collision, leaving two young passengers behind in the car.
One of them, a 16-year-old girl, was also seriously injured in the collision.
Connors was arrested by gardaí in Dublin on 11 March this year in connection with the collision. He was extradited to Wales on 16 June.
He pleaded guilty to all three charges.
Lydia La Polla died in hospital two days after the collision. North Wales Police
North Wales Police
In a victim impact statement read out to Mold Crown Court on Monday, Ms La Polla’s husband said the death of his wife had left him with a “profound sense of loss”.
“My life will never be the same again,” he wrote. “To say I am heartbroken is an understatement.
“Lydia was a wonderful mother to our children and they absolutely adored her. It breaks my heart to know that their mother won’t be there for their weddings, and she won’t be there to see them grow up and have children of their own.
“Our close family unit has been shattered into a thousand pieces, and it will never be the same again without Lydia.”
Lydia’s daughter added that losing her mother is a “pain that words cannot describe.”
She wrote: “This collision did not just take my mum from me; it took away the future I always imagined with her in it. It changed my family forever.
“I have lost the person who loved me unconditionally, who guided me through life, and who was always there whenever I needed her. No amount of time will ever heal that loss.
“The sadness never truly goes away; I have simply had to learn how to carry it.”
Speaking following sentencing, Chief Superintendent Jaqueline Downes said: “Our deepest sympathies remain with Lydia’s family, who continue to live with the devastating consequences of this incident.
“No one should ever leave their home and not return safely.”
She added: “In addition to the prison sentence Connors will now serve, he must live with the knowledge that his actions resulted in Lydia’s death and has caused unimaginable pain to her family, as well as serious injury of two more people.
“This case demonstrates the very real dangers associated with driving dangerously and we hope this sentence serves as a warning to others about the potentially devastating consequences of such behaviour.”