HEARTBREAKING PLEA: The family of Abigail Eggleston, 22, is urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to intervene after learning the man who caused her death in a drunk hit-and-run could benefit from an early release scheme. They have spent years living with the loss — and now fear the sentence could be cut even shorter than they ever imagined…
The devastated parents of a bright Durham University law student killed by a drunk hit-and-run driver are pleading with the Prime Minister to keep her killer locked up after learning he is set to benefit from an early-release scheme designed to ease prison overcrowding.
Abigail Eggleston, 22, was struck and left for dead on a pedestrian crossing in the early hours of 26 October 2025. Liam Bowes, then 37, had downed between eight and ten pints plus shots at a 50th birthday party before climbing behind the wheel of a borrowed Volkswagen Golf he was not insured to drive. He sped through a red light at Neville’s Cross on the A167 on the outskirts of Durham, hit Abigail as she crossed safely on a green pedestrian signal, and drove on without stopping. He later abandoned the car and set it on fire in a bid to destroy evidence.
Bowes was jailed for 12 years in March 2026 after admitting death by dangerous driving, perverting the course of justice, driving without insurance and failing to stop. Under normal rules he would have been expected to serve two-thirds of that sentence – eight years. Now, less than a year after Abigail’s death and only five months after sentencing, her family have been told he will instead be released after just six years.
The letter from the Probation Service arrived on Monday, two days after the family marked what would have been Abigail’s 23rd birthday. Her mother Mandy, 57, said the news hit her “like a sledgehammer.”
“We are absolutely devastated at the idea of him being freed,” she told reporters. “My husband has severe MS. He’s traumatised by the loss of Abi and now he’s got the extra stress.”
Abigail’s father Andy, 52, was equally furious. “The leniency of his sentence made us very angry. He may not even serve eight years. He killed our daughter.”
The couple are now directly appealing to Prime Minister Andy Burnham to intervene and ensure Bowes is excluded from the early-release arrangements, just as the PM has pledged to do in the case of the killers of PC Andrew Harper.
Durham’s Chief Constable Rachel Bacon said she was “deeply disappointed” that Bowes could be released early. The Ministry of Justice responded that it was “fast-tracking a plan to keep more of the most dangerous offenders behind bars.”
The facts of the night Abigail died paint a picture of reckless endangerment followed by cowardice. CCTV from the working men’s club where Bowes had been celebrating showed him drinking heavily, unsteady on his feet and behaving erratically. He left around 1.30am and was behind the wheel of the Golf a short time later. Police investigation established he had been driving consistently 10 to 20 mph over the limit and was travelling at 56 mph through the red lights in a 40 mph zone when he hit Abigail.
She had waited for the pedestrian signal to turn green. Another vehicle had stopped at the red light. Abigail stepped into the crossing and was struck with such force that she suffered fatal injuries. Bowes did not brake and did not stop. He left the 22-year-old law student lying in the road and continued driving. He later set fire to the car in a lay-by in an attempt to cover his tracks.
Abigail, from Northamptonshire, was a second-year law student at Durham University. Her family have described her as a “constant ray of sunshine” who was “on track to conquer the world.” In a tribute released after her death they said she had been “cruelly snatched from us much too soon.” A great hole had been left in their lives and nothing would ever be the same.
She was taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle but died a short time later from blunt force head injuries. The loss has been compounded for her parents by the knowledge that the man who killed her may walk free years earlier than they were led to expect.
The early-release scheme at the centre of the family’s anger was introduced as a response to chronic overcrowding in prisons across England and Wales. Under the arrangements, certain adult prisoners become eligible for release earlier than their original automatic release date. Bowes’s 12-year sentence falls within the parameters of the scheme, meaning the two-thirds point that would have seen him free after eight years has been reduced further to six.
The family argue that a man who drank heavily, drove dangerously, killed an innocent young woman on a pedestrian crossing, fled the scene and then tried to burn the evidence should not be among those benefiting from measures designed to free up prison spaces. They point to the Prime Minister’s recent statements about the killers of PC Andrew Harper, in which he indicated a willingness to intervene to prevent early release in the most serious cases.
Mandy and Andy Eggleston say the original 12-year term already felt inadequate given the circumstances. The prospect of Bowes serving only half that time has reopened wounds that were still raw. The letter from the Probation Service arrived just after they had gathered to remember Abigail on her birthday, turning a day of quiet grief into one of renewed anger and disbelief.
Supporters of the family note that Bowes’s offences included not only the fatal driving but also deliberate steps to evade justice by torching the vehicle. They argue that such conduct demonstrates a level of culpability that should place him outside any automatic early-release arrangements.
The Ministry of Justice has stressed that work is under way to ensure the most dangerous offenders remain in custody for longer. Durham police have publicly expressed disappointment at the prospect of Bowes’s early release. Yet for Abigail’s parents the official responses offer little comfort while the letter confirming the reduced term remains on their kitchen table.
Abigail Eggleston should have been celebrating her 23rd birthday with friends and family. Instead her parents marked the day without her, only to be told days later that the man who took her life will spend even less time in prison than they had already accepted as the minimum. Their direct appeal to the Prime Minister is simple and stark: stop the early release. Keep Liam Bowes behind bars for the full term the court intended.
The case has become another flashpoint in the wider debate over prison capacity, sentencing and the rights of victims’ families. For Mandy and Andy Eggleston it is not an abstract policy argument. It is the difference between eight years and six. It is the difference between a sentence that already felt too short and one that now feels like a further betrayal.
They have lost their daughter. Their remaining years are already marked by grief and, in Andy’s case, by the daily challenges of severe multiple sclerosis. The additional burden of knowing Abigail’s killer may walk free years earlier than expected is, in their words, a sledgehammer blow they should never have had to absorb.
As the Government reviews the practical application of early-release rules and the Prime Minister faces pressure over high-profile cases, the Eggleston family are asking for one specific outcome. They want Liam Bowes, the drunk driver who left their daughter dying in the road and then tried to burn the evidence, to serve every day of the sentence the court handed down.
Anything less, they say, is an insult to Abigail’s memory and a further injustice to the parents still living with the consequences of one man’s reckless decision on a night in October 2025.
The letter from the Probation Service has made the family’s position clear. Now they wait to see whether the Prime Minister will listen.
