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An epileptic mother who killed her 18-month-old baby when she lost control of her car and crashed into a van while speeding was spared jail today. Chidinma Anya, 45, sped along a grass verge on the wrong side of the road for 150 metres before the horror smash in November 2015, the Old Bailey was told.

Anya was doing up to 54mph in a 30mph zone in Plumstead, south-east London when she crashed, killing her 18-month-old baby Eugenie Anigbo and injuring the van driver. 

Anya, who had suffered from epilepsy ever since she was shot in the head during a robbery in South Africa, had not told the DVLA about her condition. 

She was driving baby Eugenie and her other daughter Grace when she suffered a seizure and drifted into the wrong lane and on to a grass verge, before returning back into her lane.  

But moments later at a bend in the road she drifted out again, mounted the kerb back on to a grass verge before ploughing into self-employed electrician Dean Snow who was in a white Vauxhall van.

Eugenie, who had been in an unsecured travel seat in the back of the blue Vauxhall Zafira, suffered devastating injuries to her neck and internal organs. 

But judge Rebecca Poulet QC decided to suspend the prison sentence after Anya's husband Bernard Anigbo begged for her not to be sent to prison. 

Mr Anigbo said in a written statement: 'She and the family have suffered immeasurably.

'Sending her to prison would almost certainly feel like the accident happening all over again. The children who are grappling with the loss of their sister would simply be devastated at losing their mother.'

Anya, who had driven daily since she passed her test in 2014, did not appreciate that full control of her seizures was impossible despite the medication and had not told the DVLA or insurers about her condition.

The judge accepted it was likely Anya suffered a seizure while driving.

'You had not declared your condition on more than one occasion, nor had you disclosed your condition in your application for insurance,' she said. 

'You were taking a substantial risk when you drove, your ability to drive was impaired by your failure to take your prescribed medication regularly.