By Chad Klassen

Gourlay addresses Gatey family with statement

Apr 17, 2018 | 4:34 PM

KAMLOOPS — The man who admitted to the hit-and-run that killed 16-year-old Jennifer Gatey in November of 2016 in Aberdeen addressed the family in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday. 

43-year-old Jason Gourlay has already plead guilty to two counts, including failure to stop at the scene of an accident and destroying evidence following the Nov. 4, 2016 incident that happened while Gatey was awaiting a bus near Pacific Way Elementary School.

On Tuesday, court heard from him for the first time, making a statement to the Gatey family, as reported by Kamloops This Week. 

“To the Gatey family, I am so sorry for the pain and sadness and loss I have caused you and I am sorry for the painful months that have passed since you have lost your daughter,” he started. “I made a very wrong decision not to stop and see what I had done that night. I made another awful decision, then, when I realized what I had done.”

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Gourlay went on to say he knows the family needs closure and “someone to own up to what happened to your daughter. I am responsible and I bear that great remorse for that, and will bear it forever. What I feel cannot be compared to what you all have been going through. My one deepest hope for you is that you can now truly begin a healing process. I hope you will find peace and know that I will bear this remorse always.”

Jennifer Gatey’s father Cameron was not in the courtroom, on a business trip in Houston, Texas. But he told CFJC Today that nothing that Gourlay said would’ve been heartfelt. 

“I will say that from my perspective there would be nothing authentic or genuine about anything he had to say. I believe anything he said was driven by his own self interest, along with every other step he’s taken along this path,” said Gatey.

Court heard earlier this month that Gourlay took his Jeep to the car wash following the hit and run to spray it down and switched the left signal light to the right side, knowing that RCMP were looking for damage on the right side of the vehicle. 

The next court date is May 14, where a date will be set for sentencing.