Charges over family deaths

A man has been charged over the death of four members of a Lichfield family in a multiple pile-up last summer.

The Dowling family of Brownsfield Road were killed in a crash on their way home from a holiday in Brittany in France on July 31. Malcolm Dowling, aged 46, his wife Janice, aged 42, and their children Richard, 16, and George, 11, died when their Peugeot 307 was in a pile-up on the A34 near Bicester.

The crash involved a car transporter, a lorry and four cars

Ian David King, aged 60, of Marston Drive, Groby, Leicester, has been charged with four counts of causing death by dangerous driving and will appear at Banbury Magistrates a week today.

Mr Dowling was a DIY enthusiast and was refurbishing the home they had lived in for less than a year.

They had moved from Trent Valley Road where they had lived for more than 15 years.

Mrs Dowling was a dinner lady at Scotch Orchard School.

Eldest son Richard had just celebrated his 16th birthday and was awaiting exam results after completing his studies at Nether Stowe High School.

He wanted a career in the police force and was hoping to start at Tamworth College in September.

Younger brother George, aged 11, had just finished at Scotch Orchard School.

In August, more than 500 people crammed into St Michael-on-Greenhill Church in Lichfield for the family's funeral.

Mourners wore small sunflowers, the flower the family loved. Each coffin also bore sunflower arrangements.

The Rev David Beedon, Rector of St Mary with St Michael, Lichfield, and St John, Wall, said in 18 years of ministry he had never been involved in a funeral so tragic.

By Victoria Hoe