Police have released a picture of a killer van driver responsible for a fatal M4 crash that saw two young siblings lose their lives while their loving mother was badly hurt.. Martin Newman, 41, had been seen weaving across the motorway in the run-up to the crash on February 5 this year which claimed the lives of four-year-old Gracie-Ann Lucas and three-year-old Jayden-Lee Lucas, who were both also known by the surname Wheaton.
At a sentencing hearing on Friday painter and decorator Newman – who admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving, one of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and charges of drink-driving and drug-driving – was jailed for nine years and four months. You can recap the hearing in full by going here.
Prosecutor Roger Griffiths outlined how dad-of-two Newman had "weaved" across the carriageway and been seen straddling lanes and touching rumble strips before drifting from lane three to the hard shoulder and colliding with a Ford Fiesta carrying the children along with their mother Rhiannon Lucas and her partner Adam Saunders, the children's stepfather. Mr Saunders had pulled over because Gracie-Ann had complained of a bad stomach and needed to wee, the court heard.
