Norfolk: Killer driver five times over limit jailed

Malcolm Waite, 68, veered off the A149 near Stalham, mounting the pavement and hitting a 16-year-old girl and Fenella Hawes.

Despite attempts to save her life, the 20-year-old student from Stalham died at the scene.

The teenager miraculously escaped with minor injuries following the accident shortly before 4.30pm on July 31.

Waite, of Meadow Drive, Hoveton, was jailed for eight years and banned from driving for 11 years after admitting causing death by dangerous driving. 

Norwich Crown Court heard Waite had failed to stop continuing along the A149 for another mile before his Lexus RX SUV crashed into a street light and road sign.

Four hours after the crash he was recorded as having 120mg of alcohol in his breath.

PC Callum Walchester, who arrested him at the scene of the collision, said: “I’ve been a PC for 10 years and worked in roads policing for almost six years, and he was the drunkest person I have ever seen behind the wheel of a car.”

Officers calculated this would have been approximately 158 micrograms - almost five times over the limit - if taken at the roadside after the crash. 

Prosecutor Chris Youell told the court the two friends had been walking home together after work when Waite ploughed into them.

He said other motorists had described him veering across the road.

Following the crash police had found him slumped at the wheel with a half drunk bottle of vodka in the vehicle. 

During police interviews, he answered no comment to every question.

In an emotional statement she read out in court, Fenella’s mother Margaret said: “I sob for the future that she doesn't have because a drunken man chose to get into a car, knowing that this was a weapon that could kill someone, and indeed it did it kill my 20-year-old daughter. 

“She was a young adult beginning her life and her bright future was taken out in a few seconds because of someone who did not think or did not care. 

“I sob because she was so happy: she was so lovely inside and out, she was so alive and now she isn't here, and never will be again. I never had a chance to say goodbye.”

Miss Hawes, who was studying natural sciences at Lancaster University, had subsequently been awarded a posthumous first class degree.

The court had heard Waite, a former computer electronic engineer, and his wife had moved to Norfolk from Leicestershire during the pandemic but he had moved out after his behaviour became erratic.

Andrew Oliver, mitigating, said he had a long history of depression and alcohol issues and that his wife had sought a restraining order after he began “acting irrationally” after stopping taking his medication.

He said he had attempted to visit his wife before the crash and had been “irrational and not making sense.

“He feels intense remorse for what he has done. He knows that he has caused intense pain to Fenella’s family and friends,” said Mr Oliver. 

Following the sentencing, Detective Inspector David McCormack, of Norfolk police serious collision investigation unit, said: "This is a tragedy, and it was wholly avoidable.

"I implore anyone who thinks it is okay to have a drink and then drive, please remember the heart-breaking and devastating consequences of drink-driving so evident in this case. Waite’s decision to drink and drive has changed lives forever.

“The teenage girl who, together with Fenella, was just walking home from work that day is traumatised by what has happened. 

“Waite will have to live the rest of his life in the knowledge he has taken the life of a remarkable young woman who had so much to offer and lots she wanted to achieve. He has caused so much pain to so many people.”