Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
9 YEARS’ JAIL
THE mum of two boys killed by a drugged up hit-and-run driver says she will never recover from “this monstrous act”.
Louise Platt-may, 28, also called for tougher sentences after Robert Brown, 53, was yesterday jailed for nine years for the deaths of the young brothers.
He was doing over 60mph in a 30mph residential area when his Ford Focus ploughed into Corey, six, and two-year-old Casper as they crossed the road on the way to the park with their mum and two brothers.
In a victim statement read in court by husband Reece, Louise said: “My heart is broken and time will never heal this. I love my boys with all my heart and they will never be forgotten. This monstrous act has destroyed me...
“Every minute, I picture their faces on the road. The sound of the car hitting them.
“Their faces will stay with me for the rest of my life.”
She said her two surviving sons still have nightmares about the crash in February. After the sentencing, Louise said: “Our only hope now is that some good comes out of their deaths through the introduction of tougher punishments for drivers who think they are above the law.”
Brown, who was high on cocaine, and his passenger Gwendoline Harrison, 42, tried to flee the scene of the 2pm accident in Coventry but were stopped by heroic passers-by.
At Warwick crown court, Brown was jailed and handed a 15-year driving ban having admitted offences including two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.
Brown, of Wyken, Coventry, had 207 previous offences and has never held a driving licence. He was released from prison six days before the crash which flung Casper out of a toy car.
Harrison, also from Wyken, was jailed for six months for assaulting a witness who tried to stop Brown escaping. She has also been disqualified from driving for 27 months.