10 years for brute trucker who rammed his lorry into lover’s house
HGV rampage caused £475k damage to homes
A TRUCKER who destroyed his then lover’s home by reversing his articulated lorry into it has been jailed for 10 years.
Derek Wellington, 34, flew into a drunken rage after former girlfriend, Sara Cassidy, refused to meet him.
He screamed down the phone at her: “I am going to park my lorry in your living room.”
Sara, 33, later spotted Wellington driving past when she was out on the street near her home in East Kilbride.
He then repeatedly reversed the HGV into the house, causing £475,000 of damage which left Sara and a neighbour having to live elsewhere.
A friend and two children who were inside at the time escaped unhurt.
Wellington, of Kilmarnock, appeared by video link for sentence at the High Court in Stirling yesterday after pleading guilty in Glasgow earlier this month to a string of charges including culpable and reckless endangerment of lives.
He also pleaded guilty to assaulting Sara, breaching bail, assaulting a police officer by spitting and breach of peace.
He was told by judge Lord Armstrong that “taking into account the grave consequences” of Wellington’s actions, there was no alternative to a custodial sentence. The court heard that Wellington – who had 24 previous convictions, including several for assault and threatening behaviour – had been on a bail order not to go near the mum at the time of the incident in September.
The condition had been imposed after he left her needing hospital treatment a month earlier by attacking her at an Edinburgh hotel.
He had headbutted Sara – who he had started dating earlier that year – and dragged her and pinned her against a wall. Despite the court order, he rang her on the day of the lorry rampage and begged to meet her. Prosecutor Lisa Gillespie QC said Wellington “took umbrage” when Sara refused, shouting, swearing and calling her obscene names. After seeing her house “caved in” by Wellington’s truck, which was later found abandoned in a supermarket car park, Sara broke down and became hysterical. Police arrived to find a scene of destruction, with several residents out on the street. The court heard occupants of seven houses had to be evacuated that night.