‘Callous’ driver had child in car during 90mph police pursuit and M-way crash

A MAN who drove at dangerously high speeds of up to 90mph with a young child in his car before crashing into pursuing police has been jailed.

Wayne Smith was trying to evade officers on the M5 when he lost control and “rammed” a marked patrol car, causing it to catch fire, during a crash that shut the motorway for 10 hours.

Jailing “callous” Smith for a total of two years and two months, a judge told him: “You exposed that child to the gravest danger in an appalling way, whilst you drove that car dangerously.”

Smith had assaulted a woman during a row at an address in Staffordshire, on August 4 last year before taking the child and driving 260 miles to Newquay, Cornwall. Police, alerted by the youngster’s family, discovered two suicide notes on Smith’s laptop.

When automatic numberplate recognition cameras picked up Smith’s black Ford Focus in Somerset heading northbound on the M5, police moved to stop his car near Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, at about 9pm on August 5.

But 27-year-old Smith, of Mile Oak, Tamworth, “accelerated” away and veered on to the hard shoulder to evade the marked cars, Oliver Woolhouse, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court.

A police BMW X5, driven by Pc Jason Smith, was hit with such force it flipped “multiple times” and caught fire, injuring the officer.

Appearing at a hearing conducted partly through Skype, Smith was sentenced following his conviction after trial in February of common assault, child cruelty, dangerous driving and causing actual bodily harm to the police officer.

Smith, who was also acquitted of false imprisonment and sexual assault, was “an intelligent young man” with a masters degree in physics, an “unblemished record” and a “committed conservation worker”, his barrister Paul Cliff said, in mitigation. Judge Barry Berlin said Smith gave little thought to the consequences.