A man who filmed himself speeding at 123mph as he weaved between motorway traffic has been jailed for 12 years after killing a pregnant mother-of-two in a road smash.
Adil Iqbal, 22, was driving with one hand and holding his phone with the other to film himself, possibly to upload to Facebook, as he tailgated and undertook other vehicles and swerved across lanes, reaching a speed of 123mph in his father’s BMW car on the M66 in Bury, Greater Manchester, on May 13 this year.
Frankie Jules-Hough, 38, had pulled over on the hard shoulder with a tyre puncture, with her two sons and nephew in the car, and was making a call to say she would be late when she let out a “blood curdling scream”, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester heard.
Iqbal’s BMW 140i undertook a motorbike then swerved, over compensated and hit a crash barrier before spinning around and ploughing into Ms Jules-Hough’s Skoda Fabia at an estimated 92mph.
The court was shown dashcam footage as well as the footage from Iqbal’s phone showing the Iqbal weaving between lanes of traffic at speeds up to 123mph before the fatal crash.
Ms Jules-Hough, 17 weeks pregnant with her first daughter, Neeve, suffered unsurvivable brain injuries. Her daughter died with her when she passed away two days later in hospital surrounded by her family, having never regained consciousness.
The actress’s son, Thomas Spencer, aged nine, and nephew Tobias Welby were left in a coma suffering serious brain injuries and their long-term outcomes remain uncertain, the court heard.
Both spent weeks in intensive care in hospital.
Ms Jules-Hough, who appeared on the popular soap Channel 4 Hollyoaks, was on the phone to Thomas’ father who, along with other family, dashed to the scene of the mangled car wreck, as emergency services and air ambulances descended.
Dashcam footage and footage from Iqbal’s phone was shown to the court, watched by relatives of Ms Jules-Hough, some of whom gave heart-rending victim impact statements before the defendant was jailed.
Iqbal, from Accrington, Lancashire, admitted two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and one count of causing death by dangerous driving of Ms Jules-Hough.
Passing sentence, Judge Maurice Greene told him: “She was killed as a result of the most indescribable reckless driving by you Adil Iqbal, leading to the devastation of a family.”
Actors from Hollyoaks had paid tributes to Ms Jules-Hough, who played the character Jess Holt in the Channel 4 soap in 2000 and 2001.
She had also appeared in Merseybeat, Heartbeat, Where The Heart Is and Wire In The Blood.
