A family’s request for the jail term for a drink and drug driver sentenced for killing two young children to be reviewed has been rejected. Martin Newman was jailed at Cardiff Crown Court on April 8 after the 41-year-old collided with a vehicle carrying Gracie-Ann Lucas, four, and her three-year-old brother Jayden-Lee Lucas on Saturday, February 5 on the M4 westbound carriageway near junction 28 at Newport.
Gracie-Ann died the day after the crash while Jayden-Lee died five days later. Both of the siblings, who were being driven home from a birthday party at the time of the incident, were also known by the surname Wheaton. In court, it was heard Newman was found by police to be more than twice the drink-driving limit after going out with colleagues the night before the crash, and had drunk 10 cans of Strongbow and taken cocaine once he returned to his hotel room. In the defendant's police interview, Newman said he was “shattered” during his drive back to Wales the next day, and had "nodded off" a few times.
At a sentencing hearing Newman – who admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving, and one of causing serious injury to the children's mother Rhiannon Lucas by dangerous driving, along with charges of drink-driving and drug-driving – was jailed for nine years and four months. You can look back at the hearing here.
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The family spoke to WalesOnline last week about their “disgust” over the leniency of the sentencing. The children’s father, Joseph Wheaton, said their lives had been “ripped apart” by the tragedy and branded Newman’s sentence “ridiculous”.
After the children’s funeral, the Attorney General's Office confirmed that an appeal over Newman's sentence had been received under the 'Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme'. Under this scheme, members of the public can ask the Attorney General’s office to examine sentences handed down by crown courts in England and Wales within 28 days of sentencing and decide whether to refer the case to the Court of Appeal to consider.
But on Monday the family received the news that the request had been refused. The Attorney General’s Office said the solicitor general was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the case. You can read more stories from courts across Wales by signing up to our crime newsletter here.
"After careful consideration the solicitor general has concluded that this case cannot properly be referred to the Court of Appeal," it said. “A referral under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence. The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met in this case."
Reacting to the news, the children’s grandfather, Jason Lucas, 52, told WalesOnline: “I don’t believe in the law anymore. It is in place for him to get longer and yet they didn’t do it. We shouldn’t have to be fighting this. We’ve suffered enough and we should now be able to grieve together, and yet we’ve had to fight and fight this decision. He’ll walk out of prison in a few years and go and see his kids and yet what do we do? Our suffering will never end.”
The Ministry of Justice said it was introducing new laws which would increase the maximum sentence to life in prison for those who kill while driving dangerously. Jason said it was “too late” but the right step.
“The law is supposed to be changing next month,” he added. “It’s too late for us now, isn’t it? But if it helps another family to get justice then that’s got to be a good thing hasn’t it? We haven’t had justice, those kids haven’t had justice.”
