Singer who toured with Little Mix jailed after killing cyclist in road crash

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A singer who toured with Little Mix has been jailed after she killed a cyclist in a road crash when she failed to stop at a roundabout.

Nadine Samuels, 27, drove into Debbie Mills on the A414, in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, shortly after 9am on 21 March

Another driver had stopped in the middle of three lanes to wait for Ms Mills to pass but Samuels, who was in the band MO, claimed she had not seen the 54-year-old on the road.

Samuels stopped after the crash and dialled 999 but was so distressed that another member of the public had to finish the call to the emergency services.

Ms Mills suffered traumatic brain injuries and died after being flown to hospital for emergency treatment.

The mother-of-three’s husband Kevin said: "We had been married for almost 25 years. We had planned our first holiday together without the children. We planned to do so much together. We have suffered so much since Debbie died. Her life has been taken from us."

Samuels pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing death by careless driving.

She was jailed for eight months and banned from driving for two years at St Albans Crown Court.

Samuels' defence barrister Simon Gledhill said she had been unfamiliar with the road in question, adding that she had written to Mrs Mills' family to express her "genuine and overwhelming" remorse.

Judge Michael Kay QC told the singer: "You did not seen Mrs Mills. You did not stop and you collided with her bicycle and she was knocked off. Very tragically she died from her injuries.

"You stopped and you were distraught and you were heard to repeatedly: 'I didn't see her. I didn't see her.' "There is nothing I can say or do which can restore a life to a bereaved family. My heart goes out to them.

"You are a professional singer about to launch a career.

"But this was not momentary inattention - the warning signs were there. There was a car waiting at the roundabout.

"I have wrestled with this, but because of nature of your driving and the warning signs of danger and terrible consequences there has to be an immediate custodial sentence."