Driver jailed after fleeing to Latvia following death of Coventry schoolboy

Aleksanders Dolars has been jailed for nine years and four months after pleading guilty to causing the death of 12-year-old Keaton Slater, whom he struck while driving at up to 76mph in a 30mph zone in Coventry.

Dolars, 23, fled to Latvia within days of the collision on 14 June 2024 and remained there for more than two years. He was extradited to the UK in August and sentenced at Warwick Crown Court.

Judge Kristina Montgomery KC told him: “Your selfish and dangerous driving took his life.” The court heard Keaton had just got off a bus and was preparing to cross Radford Road when Dolars’s BMW approached. He tried to run clear but was hit and died at the scene.

Keaton’s parents described the lasting impact of his death. His mother, Louise Slater, said she could not understand how anyone could leave a child who had been struck without stopping to help. His father, Clint, said seeing his son covered at the scene would haunt him for the rest of his life.

The family campaigned for Dolars to be brought back to face justice, with support from Coventry North West MP Taiwo Owatemi. She said the judge ordered him to attend sentencing in person after representations to the justice minister on the family’s behalf.

After the hearing, the family said they were unhappy with the sentence. Louise Slater said she understood Dolars would serve two-thirds of it in prison, meaning he could be released after about six years. “My baby only had 12 years on this planet,” she said.

The judge said Dolars must have known he had struck a pedestrian and that the person would be gravely injured. She also said the driving was not a momentary lapse: immediately beforehand, he had been seen cutting in front of cars by using the wrong lane at traffic lights.

Det Ch Insp Sam Lewis, who led the investigation, said securing Dolars’s return had been “extremely complex”.