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A mother has relived the harrowing moment she hugged her dead “rainbow baby” son after a drink-driver ploughed into their car at 141mph on the A1, killing the eight-month-old and her sister.
Darryl Anderson, 38, was jailed for more than 17 years on Tuesday after he took a photo of his speedometer just before smashing into the trio between Chester-le-Street and Durham in the early hours of 31 May.
The 38-year-old did not help mother Shalorna Warner frantically look for her baby Zackary Blades after he was flung from her car, out of his crushed car seat and onto the opposite carriageway at 3.15am.
Durham Crown Court heard that Zackary and his aunt Karlene, a 30-year-old fight attendant, were killed instantly in the horrific crash, which destroyed the back of Shalorna Warner’s Peugeot 308.
Ms Warner made a victim impact statement on Tuesday, telling the court that her and Zackary’s future together “has been stolen”.
She also recalled in vivid detail her car being spun around, seeing her sister seriously injured, then frantically looking for her son, screaming his name as she searched, after the back of her car had disintegrated in the impact.
She told the court she was in the road picking up pieces of debris, trying to find Zackary’s car seat, and that a lorry driver eventually found him on the other side of the carriageway.
She said: “I knew instantly. I had to pick my dead baby up from the side of the road. I hugged him so tight, a hug I will never forget.
“No words will surmount the irreparable hole that has been left in my heart and in my life.
“Zackary was my rainbow baby – he was the light at the end of a tunnel of a very dark time for me and brought joy, happiness and laughter into my life.
“My baby’s future, my future, our life together, has been stolen from me.
“And for my sister Karlene, I just have no words. I am so sorry this happened to you. It’s hard to process something that doesn’t seem real – it just feels like I am living a nightmare.
“I will feel the ripples of this pain for the rest of my life. I don’t know if I will be able to get through this – I am scarred, I am traumatised, I am petrified to live my life.”
Analysis of the computer in Anderson’s Audi Q5 showed he had his accelerator pedal fully to the floor and did not brake before impact.
When he took a photo on his mobile phone to show off his speed, the Peugeot could be seen in the picture, as well as a collision warning light illuminated on his dashboard.
Anderson lied and told police that a hitchhiker was behind the wheel when his powerful SUV slammed into Ms Warner’s car.
But he pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving at a hearing last week.
Emma Dowling, prosecuting, said a roadside breath test showed Anderson was almost three times over the drink-drive limit.
He had been drinking on the plane home from a holiday he curtailed after his erratic behaviour made his wife leave separately, the court heard.
Police found an empty vodka bottle in his car.
Witnesses saw him driving dangerously in the 20 miles he had travelled from Newcastle Airport before the collision, and analysis showed he sent messages on WhatsApp.
Sharlona Warner had also been to the airport to pick up her sister from a holiday, with her son secured in the rear of her car.
At a police station, Anderson, of Clarell Walk, Thorpe Hesley, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, told officers: “I drove into the back of a car. Sometimes mistakes happen. But I’m not a bad person.”
Ms Warner’s father Nigel and Karlene’s partner, Kieran Hutchinson, also made victim impact statements to the court on Tuesday.
Judge Joanne Kidd jailed Anderson for 17 years and three months and banned him from driving for a further 21 and a half years after he is released.
Around 50 friends and family members of the two victims were in court for the sentencing.
Judge Kidd told Anderson he had been playing “Russian roulette” with the lives of other drivers that night and a crash was inevitable.
Richard Dawson, defending, said Anderson, who was married and has a daughter, was “profoundly sorry”.
Outside court, Detective Constable Natalie Horner, of Durham Constabulary’s Collision Investigation Unit, said: “As roads policing officers, we routinely ask people not to drive above the speed limit.
“We routinely ask people not to use their mobile phones while driving. And we routinely ask people not to get behind the wheel while intoxicated.
“Darryl Anderson was doing all three of those things when he collided with Shalorna Warner’s car, killing both passengers, Karlene and baby Zackary.
“For his actions, Anderson has been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison, but it is his victims and their family who have been handed life sentences.
“It is them who will spend the rest of their lives grieving the loss of their son, their grandchild, their wife, their sister and their mother. And for what?”
