Families split as driver walks free (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Families split as driver walks free

Nicky Gough and Colette HolbrookGAZETTE & HERALD: THE grieving parents of car smash sweethearts Nicky Gough and Colette Holbrook are divided over the sentence given this week to their young friend who was speeding behind them.

Martin Rowley, 20, of Sandown Drive, Chippenham, appeared before magistrates in the town on Tuesday when he admitted dangerous driving. He was ordered to pay a £750 fine with £70 costs and banned from driving for a year.

He was comforted during the hearing by Miss Holbrook's mother Anita but after the case Mr Gough's father Kevin said that Rowley should have been jailed for life.

He said: "They should still be here today. It will never be okay."

But Mrs Holbrook said that Rowley had done nothing wrong and deserved sympathy.

"Right from the start I've never had any doubts that he had anything to do with it," she said.

"Who would want to be horrible to anybody who's been through that?

"I know Colette wouldn't have wanted it. You need to help the living, there's nothing you can do for the dead and comforting him helps me."

She added: "It was his two best friends. He's got a life sentence. The only good thing is he's got youth on his side. He's never going to forget what happened. It's going to be with him forever.

"We still keep in contact because of his contact with Colette and Nicky. I don't think we'll ever lose touch. He didn't do anything wrong."

Tensions were running high as the families gathered to hear Chippenham magistrates' sentence. There was a strong police presence and Rowley had to be escorted out in an officer's car.

Mr Gough, a 21-year-old gardener of Brook Street, Chippenham, and fiancee Miss Holbrook, a 20-year-old beauty therapist of Doveys Terrace, Kington Langley, were killed when their car hit a tree in the early hours of Easter Monday on the A342 near Sandy Lane.

Rowley was speeding behind Miss Holbrook in a yellow Peugeot 106 GTI when he and his two passengers watched in horror as she lost control of her car on a bend.

Wiltshire coroner David Masters last month recorded a narrative verdict at an inquest, saying that nothing untoward had happened and that the main causes of the accident were excess speed and driver error after Miss Holbrook lost control.

Mrs Holbrook said the court's verdict was what her family wanted.

"We were relieved for him," she said. "I'm glad for Martin's sake that it's over. I just hope now that he can start to put his life back together."

Stacey Turner, prosecuting, told magistrates that both drivers proceeded out of Sandy Lane towards Chippenham and accelerated on the straight stretch. Rowley was driving at about 68mph on the 60mph road and was two to three car lengths behind Miss Holbrook.

Rowley was not racing and he did not in any way cause the collision, said Ms Turner.

Karen Dempsey, defending, said that Rowley hadn't even sat in his cherished car since the accident.

"He visited the families of his two friends," Miss Dempsey said. "He is extremely sorry that he lost them and he had to watch what happened, but the coroner returned a verdict that he was not responsible for that."