Drunk driver who killed two children in M4 horror crash moves to open prison
A drunk driver who ploughed into a young mum’s car on the M4[1] killing her three year old son Jayden Lee and four-year-old daughter Gracie Ann is to be moved to an open prison. Martin Newman was jailed for nine years for the 2022 crash and has so far served fewer than two of them.
Newman was more than twice over the drink driving limit, having had drunk 10 cans of Strongbow cider and vodka when he drove into Rhiannon Lucas’s red Ford Fiesta. He also had traces of cocaine in his system.
That fateful day on February 5, 2022, Rhiannon and her partner had pulled over on the hard shoulder of the M4 to let Gracie-Ann use the toilet. They were returning from a children’s birthday party when Newman, swerving across lanes of the motorway, crashed into their stationary car at 57mph.
It would have been Gracie-Ann’s seventh birthday this Easter. Her mum Rhiannon said: “There are no words for how angry I feel at hearing this news. He only got nine years for killing my two children which was an absolute insult. Now I’m hurt all over again knowing he is going to an open prison where things will be much easier for him. How can that be right? “.
After the crash, Jayden Lee and Gracie Ann sadly passed away in intensive care at University Hospital of Wales[4] in Cardiff[5], while Rhiannon suffered life-changing injuries.
Dad-of-two Newman, from Croeserw, Neath[6] Port Talbot[7], admitted to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving. As well as the nine year jail sentence, he was also banned from driving for 14 years and eight months. He will now be moved to Usk open prison in April.
“I’m crippled with grief most of the time but hearing this has just set me back so much. I had come off medication but now I am back on it because of this news,” said Rhiannon, who lives in Tredegar[8].
“It’s disgusting – where is the justice for my beautiful children? That man has destroyed our lives. I will never hear my children laugh again or see them smile. I have a life sentence of torture and pain. I will never hear my children laugh again or see them smile. I have a life sentence of torture and pain.”
Gracie-Ann and brother Jayden-Lee (Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE)
Van driver Newman was heading home from Leicester on the M4 westbound when he swerved onto the hard shoulder around 1.45pm. Prosecutor Roger Griffiths said Newman had been seen zigzagging across the road, straddling lanes and hitting rumble strips before the crash.
Witnesses said they saw Newman using his phone and driving fast. His phone was checked and the last call ended seven minutes before the crash, during which he’d argued with his ex-partner.
Eyewitness Cara Williams told Cardiff Crown Court[9] during the trial that she’d urged her partner to overtake Newman and “get out of that idiot’s way”, saying: “I thought the driver was either drunk or on the phone and definitely not paying attention.”
Another driver, Rachel Paparakis, who witnessed the crash, described how Newman’s van crashed into Rhiannon’s car at speed. The prosecutor said: “She did not see any brake lights come on or a change in direction of travel at all. There was an almighty bang and she pulled over to the hard shoulder. There was debris everywhere, the van had spun round, and the red car was in lane one.”
Rhiannon Lucas and Joseph Wheaton, the parents of Gracie Ann and Jayden Lee (Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE)
When police arrived at the scene, Newman was reportedly upset and crying with blood on his hands. The officer could smell alcohol on him. He failed the breath test and was arrested for causing serious injury by dangerous driving and drink-driving.
Newman seemed to be slurring his words and tried to say he was driving straight when something “clipped” him. The court heard he said: “I just want to die but that’s the coward’s way out.”
At the Grange Hospital, he said “I want to f*****g die,” and added: “I’ve done some f*****g s**t in my life but today I crossed a line.” Information from Newman’s van showed he used the brakes 2.5 seconds before the crash.
Judge Daniel Williams said Newman’s actions were the “most serious level of dangerous driving” but he couldn’t give a bigger sentence than the law allows. Newman only has to spend half the time in jail and Newman’s sentence was also cut by a third because he pleaded guilty at the first chance.
Rhiannon said: “Martin Newman has never said sorry for what he did, not once. The legal justice system protects the criminals, not the victims. Because of him I spent Mother’s Day at the cemetery putting flowers on my dead children’s graves.”
Gracie-Ann and brother Jayden-Lee (Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE)
“They should be running around playing and I should be reading them bedtime stories. But now that will never happen because of his selfish actions.”
“The last few years have been so, so hard. After I lost both my children I had to come home to a silent house filled with their toys and games – but they were gone. It was unimaginable.”
Rhiannon wrote to the Probation Service about Newman being moved to an open prison, and was urged to speak to her victim liaison officer. She claims she was told it’s likely he will be able to stay at a family member’s house once a week.
Gracie-Ann would have turned seven on April 10, while Jayden Lee’s birthday is on May 6.
Rhiannon Lucas, 27, with her new baby (Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE)
Rhiannon and her partner, Adam, welcomed another daughter, Summer-Gracie, last year. She is now almost one, and Rhiannon dreads the day she’ll have to tell her little girl about her siblings, and how they died so tragically.
“Summer-Gracie will only ever know them from photographs and it breaks my heart she will never meet them,” she said. “They were such wonderful children.”
“It’s Gracie-Ann’s birthday next month, and Jayden-Lee’s in May. Instead of having a birthday party with all their friends singing happy birthday to them, I will be taking balloons to the cemetery.”
“I know my children will never be forgotten, though. At Gracie-Ann’s primary school[10] they keep an empty chair at the table in one of the classes and say, ‘This is Gracie-Ann’s chair’. No one sits on it. It’s really touching and heart-breaking at the same time.”
“It seems so unfair that Martin Newman’s life is going to get easier, while our sentence will last till the day I die.”
References
- ^ the M4 (www.walesonline.co.uk)
- ^ https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/rogue-traders-left-garden-complete-28890143 (www.walesonline.co.uk)
- ^ https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/english-people-watched-wales-match-28894273 (www.walesonline.co.uk)
- ^ University Hospital of Wales (www.walesonline.co.uk)
- ^ Cardiff (www.walesonline.co.uk)
- ^ Neath (www.walesonline.co.uk)
- ^ Port Talbot (www.walesonline.co.uk)
- ^ Tredegar (www.walesonline.co.uk)
- ^ Cardiff Crown Court (www.walesonline.co.uk)
- ^ school (www.walesonline.co.uk)