A mum has opened up about the bittersweet moment she discovered she was pregnant just weeks after burying her partner.
Carol King, 30, found out she was having Richard Gray Jordan's second baby after he was killed in a car crash on the A19 near Houghton-le-Spring. The 33-year-old non-league footballer was travelling in a Mercedes driven by his work colleague Mark Thompson.
Drink and drug-fuelled Thompson clocked more than 121mph before crashing the vehicle in August 2019. Richard, who was known as Richie, was a rear seat passenger in the car and died in the collision. Thompson's front seat passenger, Lewis Atkinson, suffered a bleed on the brain.
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At Newcastle Crown Court in August 2021, Thompson was jailed for six years and eight months. The 42-year-old pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Less than three months after saying goodbye to her partner of four-and-a-half years, Carol found out she was expecting his child. She gave birth to Richie's second daughter, who she named Gray Isabella Jordan after her dad, just before the first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020.
Carol, who lives in East Herrington, Sunderland, is now bringing up their daughters Quinn, four, and Gray, two, with help from supportive family. The mum-of-two said: “I didn’t know I was pregnant when Richie died. I found out I was pregnant 11 days after I buried him. I felt like I was watching somebody else’s life - this was something you see in a soap. It did take a while for me to think this is real, it’s happening to me and it’s not happening to somebody else.
"It just seemed fitting to name her after her dad. She’s been a huge comfort. I have always said I wanted two children. When I see the two girls everything makes sense.
"Richie idolised Quinn so I can only imagine the love he would have had for the both of them. It’s bittersweet. It is a comfort to me that they will have each other. I see so much of him in them.
"Quinn is very inquisitive about her dad. She thinks he lives on the moon and she loves to see pictures of him. He was a non-league footballer and she likes to go to Sunderland games. She's trying to find things she's had in common with him.
"There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about him. It was Father’s Day at the weekend and his football shirt was number eight so we got a number 8 balloon and Quinn made a card for him at nursery. I asked what she wanted to do and she said 'Get the card to him with the balloon' - so that’s what we tried to do.
"I have support from my mam and other family members when bringing up the girls. They have got a massive support network around them."
Carol, who works as an Admin Officer at HM Passport Office, met Richie, who worked as a plumber, in 2014 and they got together the following year. When she fell pregnant with their first child Quinn, he was by her side throughout the whole pregnancy.
Carol said: "We got together on April Fool's Day 2015 - that was just typical Richie. When I fell pregnant, I was quite ill. He carried me through that pregnancy. He put me in the bath and put my pyjamas out. He did everything. When Quinn came along, he took over. I’m smiling when I think about him.
"Richie was the nicest person you could meet. Everyone said that about him. He just made you smile. His personality was just infectious and he was just that type of person who wore his heart on his sleeve. He was a genuinely lovely individual."
The court in Newcastle heard last year how Thompson smashed into the rear of a Vauxhall Corsa with such force that Richie was sent flying from the vehicle. The car also went up in the air, hit a barrier and span before landing on its side on a grass verge. Richie sadly died as a result of his catastrophic injuries.
The owner of the Corsa described Thompson's Mercedes being driven "as if it were on a race track" in the seconds before the crash. A blood test later revealed the defendant was over the legal limit for alcohol and Benzoylecgonine, a breakdown product of cocaine. Morphine was also found in his system.
Thompson, of Seaton Crescent, Seaham, County Durham, was locked up for six years and eight months and banned from the roads for three years, which will start on his release from jail.
Carol said that during the two years, between Richie's death and his sentencing hearing, Thompson was still allowed to drive on the roads. She has now launched a campaign to change the process whereby motorists suspected of being at fault in a serious or fatal collision have their licences temporarily suspended while an investigation continues.
As it stands, a driver's licence is not revoked until there is a relevant criminal conviction.
Carol said: "He was allowed to drive for two years. Ritchie passed away on the 4th August 2019 and he was sentenced on 31 August 2021. There was nothing they were able to do with his driving licence until he went to crown court on the 31st August.
"I can remember one of the first questions I asked to the police. I always remember saying ‘will this person continue driving?’ They said 'There's nothing we can do about driving licences, it’s in the court's hands'. I thought how is this possible?
"It was always in the back of my mind. Now I need to do something about it. We can’t have a system where somebody is an alcoholic or drug dependent and they can still drive."
Carol said she sees the change as being similar to someone having their licence temporarily revoked for the failure of a roadside eye-test. She said it would give people piece of mind and it would be an immediate acknowledgment of how serious the offences are.
Her campaign has been supported by Bridget Phillipson, MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, who has described Carol as a "courageous" and "determined" woman.
The Labour MP is scheduled to meet with Charlotte Vere, Baroness Vere of Norbiton Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Transport, to speak about Carol's case.
Ms Phillipson said: "Carol’s determination to ensure that other families don’t experience what she and her children have been through is inspiring. It’s horrifying that those who cause a serious incident on our roads, even death, when under the influence of drink or drugs, can still be driving many months afterwards. This has to change, and I’ll be making the case in Parliament."
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