Drink driver handed eight 12 months jail sentence after leaving associates for lifeless
A drunk driver who killed his girlfriend and workmate has been served with an eight-year jail sentence.
Jordan Lawrence, 25, drank beer and laborious liqeur at a celebration in Scotland earlier than he received behind the wheel of a automobile together with his girlfriend, Jasmine Herron, 19, and colleague Johnathan Graham, 37.
Lawrence rapidly misplaced management of the automobile earlier than colliding with a boulder on the banks of Loch Caolisport, Argyll.
His two passengers had been thrown from the automobile, the place they died, however as an alternative of informing the police, the digger operator fled the scene.
The trial heard that he was “holed up” at residence when authorities found the our bodies of Miss Herron and Mr Graham, a father of three.
Lawrence was charged with inflicting deaths by harmful driving and attended a trial at Edinburgh Crown Court.
Jurors heard that Lawrence, who was 22 on the time, had arrived on the get together, a “get together” celebrating the top of pheasant taking pictures season at Ormsary Estate, in January 2020 with a pack of Stella Artois.
He proceeded to drink whisky, gin and vodka over the course of the occasion earlier than driving residence.
Witnesses mentioned he left the venue with Ms Herron and Mr Graham whereas driving quick, with one telling the court docket their automobile “zoomed past”.
Advocate depute Graeme Jessop argued that proof confirmed Lawrence had misplaced management of the automobile at some extent within the highway with no apparent hazards and questioned why he “made off from the scene” after the crash.
He urged the defendant went residence and was “trying to avoid detection by the authorities” till “the police found him”.
Ormsary gamekeeper James Reid, 40, found the automobile mendacity on the shore off the B8024 the morning after the occasion.
He advised the court docket he recognised the wrecked automobile, which was “well down the beach, facing out to sea”, as Lawrence’s, and found his colleague Mr Graham, who lived on the gamekeeper’s cottage together with his household, lifeless.
He rushed residence to contact emergency companies earlier than returning to the scene together with his companion, Lisa McShane, who then discovered Miss Herron’s physique.
At the time, she mentioned the couple feared he was “lying dead somewhere as well”, however they had been later knowledgeable by police that he was discovered alive.
Lawrence denied inflicting the deaths by harmful driving in court docket, however he was discovered responsible by jurors and sentenced to eight years behind bars by presiding Judge Lord Beckett.
Lord Beckett mentioned there was “no sentence” he might cross that “matches the value of the two lives that have been lost”, as he sentenced Lawrence, who has additionally been banned from driving for 12 years.