Gus Atkinson with his mother, Caroline, and Youssef Berouain. (Source – Twitter/X)
A four-year-long legal battle had finally come to a close on July 26 of this year as former actor, Youssef Berouain, who had played roles in EastEnders, Doctors, and the 9/11 mini series The Looming Tower, was sentenced to eight-and-a-half-years of imprisonment for being involved in the killing of English fast bowler Gus Atkinson’s mother, Caroline Atkinson.
The verdict was delivered at the Southwark Crown Court at the same time when Gus was registering a four-for in the first innings of the third Test against the West Indies.
Berouain, 31, carelessly driving at over double the speed limit in a 30 mph zone, killed 55-year-old Caroline, a mother of three on December 10, 2020. Officials investigating the scene of the crime mentioned that they could smell cannabis on Berouain and he was acting in an idiosyncratic manner before refusing to partake in roadside testing, The Telegraph reported.
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However, it was far from a straightforward process to bring Berouain to justice. The former actor had fled to Dubai soon after, and then to his final destination, the United States of America. The United States-United Kingdom extradition treaty to bring him in front of Southwark Crown Court had to be activated with the intermediary help of the United States Marshals and officials at the British Embassy in Washington.
Berouain pleaded guilty on June 14 of this year. Two weeks post that, Gus was named in the squad for the first Test of the English summer while the family awaited the sentencing of the vile offender. Six weeks later, Berouain was jailed, by which time Atkinson had made an outstanding inititiation to his career in the longest format of the game.
The judge who passed the eventual verdict professed that Berouain moving to the United States and the ultimate lag in bringing him to court due to extradition hearings was a “source of great distress” to the Atkinson family and her friend, who was also injured.
The friend spent three weeks in hospital, post which she underwent six weeks in a rehabilitation clinic and subsequently suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor’s guilt. She was still in daily pain three-and-a-half years later.
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“Every time I walk, I am reminded of that night,” the friend said in her victim impact statement read to court.
The former actor was handed an eight-and-a-half-year prison term for being the cause of Caroline’s death and a simultaneous sentence of three years for causing a grave injury to her friend.
At 10:20 pm on that fateful night was when Caroline had ordered an Uber, a Toyota Prius, in south London. About five minutes into her journey, the car was struck by an Audi Q7 SUV driven by Berouain at a speed of “between 63 and 66 mph”, according to extradition papers lodged at the North Spring Street Courthouse in Los Angeles.
“Her death robbed her of the chance to become a grandmother, and her children and in due course grandchildren are forever deprived of her presence and love as their lives progress. The picture that emerges from these statements is of a formidable woman, fiercely devoted to her children and who stood up for what was right. She was also evidently a community-minded individual. I am very moved by her husband’s description of the street in which she lived being lined by hundreds of friends and mourners on the day of her funeral. That shows that she was a much-loved and respected woman,” read the judge from a victim impact statement in court which Ed Atkinson, Caroline’s husband and Gus’s father, had drafted.
“I basically emphasized the importance of carrying on. I said: ‘Gussy, you’ve got to go and prove what mum set out – that you can do it.’,” mentioned Ed to Telegraph Sport.
“I want to bowl for England, I want to take five and I want to hold the ball up and say: ‘thanks, mum,’” Gus told his father.
“Once she passed away my career could have gone one of two ways and I wanted to take it in the direction she would have wanted. And that I wanted as well,” said Gus recently.