SPEEDING drink-driver Paula Barnes who killed mother-of-two Diane Wright in a head-on car crash was yesterday jailed for more than eight years after going on the run and hiding from justice in Holland for nearly two years.

Paula Barnes, 45, of Baydon, was accused of causing the death of 49-year-old teaching assistant Diane Wright by driving dangerously along an unclassified country road between the villages of Baydon and Foxhill at 3.30pm on September 23, 2010.

But, despite surrendering her passport, it is thought she left the country in early 2011 via private transport – and failed to turn up for a court hearing in April 2011 to enter a plea.

After a complex investigation involving Wiltshire Police, Interpol, regional crime group Zephyr and the Serious Organised Crime Agency, she was tracked down in Amsterdam in November 2012 and brought back to Swindon, where she finally pleaded guilty.

Yesterday at Swindon Crown Court, Barnes, of Aldbourne Road, Baydon, stood apparently emotionless in the dock as she was jailed for eight years and banned from the roads for 10 years for causing death by dangerous driving, and also jailed for five months consecutively for failing to surrender to bail.

Judge Euan Ambrose told Barnes: “They were a close-knit family. Mrs Wright was described in the victim personal statements as the lynch-pin of the centre of her family.”

He said her decision to abscond did not accord with the defence’s claim she was remorseful.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, said Barnes was seen moments before the crash driving an Audi erratically in the other direction, on the wrong side of the road, at speeds estimated at up to 100mph – and she narrowly avoided crashing into two other cars before the fatal collision. He said: “The best estimates for the defendant’s speed was that she was travelling at the time of the collision between 64mph and 72mph.

“It’s clear the collision was on the wrong side of the road.”

Mrs Wright died instantly while Barnes was taken to hospital with broken bones.

Mr Meeke said Mrs Wright’s youngest daughter, Lucy, then 17, went out to look for her when she did not come home and learned of the tragedy after approaching the police cordon at the scene.

Tests of Barnes’ blood, taken five hours after the incident, estimated she had 195 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The limit is 80.

Ian Lawrie QC, defending, said Barnes had no previous convictions, she did not fight her extradition, and she had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity back in the UK.