The heartbroken mum of two children who were killed when a van driver crashed into their car on the M4 has said she wants them to be remembered as "happy and loving". Rhiannon Lucas was speaking outside court after watching Martin Newman being sentenced to nine years and four months in prison for the deaths of Gracie-Ann Lucas, four, and her three-year-old brother Jayden Lucas.
The court heard that 41-year-old painter and decorator Newman had been drinking and taken drugs when his Ford Transit crashed into the car that was carrying the siblings, who were also known by the surname Wheaton, along with their mother and stepfather Adam Saunders.
Sentencing came just two days before Gracie-Ann should have been celebrating her fifth birthday. Instead the devastated family are going back home to an "empty shell" past the school where the children had been pupils. The children's father, Joseph Wheaton, and stepfather Adam Saunders wore T-shirts with pictures of Gracie-Ann and Jayden-Lee printed on the front while a statement on behalf of the family was read out.
