US servicewoman based in UK who killed couple in head-on crash when she lost concentration for 'just under two seconds' avoids jail

A US servicewoman based in the UK who crashed her car and killed a couple after losing concentration has been spared jail.Jasmine Dessaure, 37, caused a near head-on collision with Dilipan Sebastiampillai, 43, and his wife Dorota, 41, while driving on a single-carriageway road that runs through Thetford Forest Brandon, Suffolk, in March 2023.Dessaure, based at RAF Mildenhall, was driving 'well within the speed limit' but lost her focus for 'just under two seconds' which led to the fatal accident.The cars were travelling in opposite directions when both left the carriageway and the couple's Nissan caught fire, Suffolk police said.Dessaure pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two counts of causing death by careless driving.She wept as she was sentenced at Peterborough Crown Court on Friday to 12 months in custody suspended for two years.The judge also handed her an 18-month driving ban and ordered that she complete 180 hours of unpaid work.Mark Tomassi, prosecuting, said: 'In cases like this there are no winners, only losers. Jasmine Dessaure, 37, based at RAF Mildenhall (pictured), caused a near head-on collision with Dilipan Sebastiampillai, 43, and his 41-year-old wife Dorota They were driving on a single-carriageway road that runs through Thetford Forest Brandon, Suffolk, in March 2023'It would seem that as a result of a momentary lack of concentration and attention, the vehicle that she (Dessaure) was driving lost control.'Mr Tomassi said it happened at around 5.30pm and that there had been 'deterioration on the road edge as the road edge meets the grass verge'.He said there was a 'yawing of the vehicle from one side to the other', moving across the carriageway following 'overcorrection'.'There was a failure to drive to the appropriate standard because of a momentary lapse of concentration that would have lasted just under two seconds,' he said.He said Dessaure had been driving at approximately 40mph, 'well within the 60mph limit', when she lost control and there was a 'nigh head-on collision'.He said this caused 'massive damage and trauma to both vehicles but particularly to the occupants of the vehicle that was struck, leading… to catastrophic injury and death'.He said that the 'lapse of attention wasn't aggravated by any other circumstances'.The barrister said the family of the deceased 'do not want the prosecution to read out victim personal statements'.Ali Bajwa KC, mitigating, said the defendant wanted to express 'how sorry she was for what's happened as a result of her driving failure'.He said she initially believed she hit a pothole, but 'her tyre left the road and entered a trench'.Speaking as he spared Dessaure jail, the judge said: 'It's an enormous tragedy.'Nothing I can say will make anything any better for anyone.'He noted that Dessaure and others 'attempted to assist the occupants of the other vehicle but were unable to get them out'.It comes after a US servicewoman was cleared of causing the death of a motorcyclist in a crash.Mikayla Hayes, who was based at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, hit father-of-one Matthew Day in August 2022 when the collision happened on the A10 at Southery. He later died from his injuries. A jury found her not guilty and an agreement for a six-figure compensation was reached.In 2019, a US government employee made a 'tragic mistake' which resulted in the death of a teenager.Anne Sacoolas insisted she was a 'safe driver' and was driving 'like an American' on the day she careered into the teenager's oncoming motorbike outside an RAF base in Northamptonshire.She appeared before a High Court judge at the Old Bailey via video-link in December 2022, where she pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving. She was handed an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.