Family welcome decision to double killer driver's jail term

Dec 10 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

THE family of a young father killed in a road crash last night welcomed a court decision to double his killer’s jail term.

Drink driver Daltery Roger Pearson, of Burnside Close, Blyth, was jailed in October for five years after his car slammed into pedestrian barriers, before mounting a grass verge and crashing into a lamppost.

The 29-year-old fled the scene as his passenger, Dane Naylor, 33, was left to die on the side of the Coast Road in Wallsend.

Pearson was given a five-year jail term at Newcastle Crown Court after admitting causing death by dangerous driving, drink driving, having no insurance and driving while disqualified.

But the Lord Chief Justice doubled the sentence to 10 years at London’s Court of Appeal.

Last night Mr Naylor’s retired parents, Joan, 63, and David, 63, of Killingworth Avenue in Backworth, North Tyneside, said they were pleased the “disgusting” sentence had been extended.

Mrs Naylor said: “We were disgusted because we were bothered about how lenient it was.

“It won’t bring back my son, but it makes you feel a lot better. This sort of tragedy is devastating and it rips the whole family to pieces.

“He didn’t kill my son intentionally, but he left him there to die. When he did that he didn’t just kill my Dane, he killed the whole family.”

Mr Naylor, also of Backworth, had been in Newcastle with Pearson watching Kevin Keegan’s first game in charge of Newcastle United on the night he died in January.

Four months after his death, Mr Naylor’s fiancée Samantha Hogg gave birth to their son Maison-Dane. He also had a nine-year-old son named Shay with ex-partner Claire Barron, 30.

Last night Mr Naylor’s father David paid tribute to his son and issued a stark warning to drink drivers – urging them to think before they get behind the wheel.

He said: “It’s been terrible, especially for Joan. She’s not over it yet, but I don’t think you ever get over something like this - it never gets any easier.

“He was such a happy-go-lucky lad and we loved him so much. He lived from day-to-day. He was not perfect, but he would go out of his way to help you.

“It was terrible being in court and knowing he was only going to serve two and a half years.

“People know what they are doing when they get in a car drunk, but just look what happened to our son.”

Yesterday the Lord Chief Justice said Pearson had displayed a “prolonged, shocking piece of aggressive driving by a drunk driver” and it was a “case of the highest culpability”.

He ruled the five years was “unduly lenient and seriously so”.

Lord Judge said the court was “unable to pass a sentence on this offender for this dreadful piece of driving of less than 10 years’ imprisonment”.