Mother Says She Hugged Daughter’s Killer as They Cried in Prison

Published: 28 February 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online

A grieving mother has described an emotional meeting with the man convicted of killing her daughter in a restorative justice encounter at a UK prison, telling the BBC that she hugged him as both cried and that the experience helped her find a measure of understanding and personal peace.

Danielle O’Halloran, 37, from Mountain Ash, South Wales, lost her daughter Chloe Hayman, aged 17, in July 2022 after a drug‑driving crash in Pontypridd. Keilan Roberts, who had taken cocaine, ecstasy and other substances and was over the legal alcohol limit, was convicted in relation to the crash. After his sentence was increased on appeal to five years and three months in prison, O’Halloran initially struggled with intense grief, anger and hate.

Months after Chloe’s death, O’Halloran said she eventually chose to meet Roberts in prison to seek answers and personal closure. During the meeting, she said she realised the driver did not intend harm in the criminal sense but made deeply wrong choices that led to tragedy. In the emotional encounter, they held each other and cried, and she told him, “I’m sorry you’re the one who has to live with this.”

O’Halloran explained that her decision to meet Roberts was not an endorsement of his actions but a way of letting go of anger that was harming her ability to live: “I realised that hatred was eating me up,” she said. She said that understanding the human side of the person responsible — including his remorse and regret — was part of her healing process.

The restorative justice meeting is part of a practice some victims’ families choose to participate in, where offenders and victims or their families are brought together to share experiences, questions and emotions in a controlled setting. Advocates say such encounters can help victims process grief and can humanise the consequences of crime for offenders, though they are not appropriate or desired in all cases.

O’Halloran now hopes to work with Roberts in the future to speak in schools about the dangers of drink and drug‑related driving, using their story to warn others about the profound consequences of such choices. She emphasised that her forgiveness is not about forgetting or diminishing Chloe’s life, but about ensuring her grief does not consume her life’s purpose.

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