A van driver who killed a popular Beatties beautician and injured her two young children after taking a cocktail of drink and drugs was this afternoon jailed for nine years.
Stephen Taylor, aged 42, was two and a half times the legal limit when he ploughed his Mercedes Sprinter van into a car being driven by Maxine Leigh on Coalway Road, Penn.
He also had traces of methadone and heroin in his system and was driving between 60 and 80mph in a 30mph zone.
Witnesses described how his van was going “extraordinarily fast” and had a “screaming engine”.
One heard him speaking on his mobile phone after the crash saying: “I’ve had a drink, it’s bad.”
Maxine, of Penn Road, had worked on the Clarins counter at Beatties since 1994. She died at the scene.
Her husband of 10 years, Martin, now aged 46, was left with a bruised lung and whiplash and the couple’s sons Nathan, now 12, and Jake, nine, were also injured.
Taylor, of Whittaker Street, Parkfields, initially denied causing death by dangerous driving but he dramatically changed his plea just days before his trial was due to start ealier this month.
The guilty plea ended a year of anguish for the family, who had been tormented by Taylor pinning the blame on Maxine for the crash.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Taylor has three previous convictions for driving while disqualified, driving without insurance and dangerously driving a stolen car.
Maxine, who was 43, had been on a Sunday afternoon outing with her family in their Skoda Superb and was just minutes away from her home following a trip to McDonald’s when Taylor crashed into her last September. Husband Martin spoke of his sons’ bravery and said the family’s world had been ripped apart.
By Mike Woods
15 Comments
should have gotten life, eye for an eye
Hope he rots in hell!
Lets just hope he serves his full sentance and isnt out in 4 1/2 years…..
Er, is that really nine years? Or is it five years with good behaviour? Or should it rather be three years, including good behaviour and an additional two years shaved off because of prison overcrowding?
Yes, he should have been hung.
But we can count our blessings that this judge didn’t just give him community service, like many would have.
As far as I’m concerned if you take a life then you deserve to loose your life !
I doubt if he even cares about what he has done as anyone with any morals or standards or even a brain wouldn’t drink and drive let alone drink, drive and take drugs !He will not serve the full nine years, he will be able to continue with his life unlike Maxines family who will be serving a life sentence
NINE years is nothing he will probably be out in Four. Lets hope the judge who passed sentence never has to go through the same pain as maxines family are. Hope taylor can live with himself
9 years!!!! how daft is this law ..should be life plus regular beatings on a daily basis!! scum
hope he gets his justice in jail just a idiot to do drugs
bring back capital punishment with all this DNA and evidence behind them get rid of them then we wont have overcrowded jails
Yet again an appalling sentence given out by british judges to a vile putrid man!.
9 years for taking a mothers life,robbing her husband and sons of something so precious..Disgusting!!
This moron caused further suffering by initially pleading not guilty so that he would get another few months of freedom, adding to the family’s pain. He should have been kept in jail until the hearing.He doesn’t care about what he did.
The fourth serious driving conviction - he should be banned form driving for life when he gets out.
He shouldn’t be let out.
9 years is not nearly enough. He was 2 and 1/2 times over the legal drink drive limit, he had heroin in his system, he was speeding, he was not insured, and he has at least three previous driving convictions. Scum of the earth. Because of him, a young woman has died, a man has to face life without his wife and his two children have lost their mother.
i know the family and my heart goes out to them. poor maxine. to be fair he got nine years and he killed her but i am sure that duing those nine years he will lie awake at night and think about the effect his ridiculous actions have caused on the leighs. martin is so down to earth but enjoys a good laugh and even he couldnt grasp his wife’s death. nathan is so incredibly brave though, dealing with a thing like this, and jake is only little still and he is too strong. thank god they handled it so well and rest in peace maxine .