English drink driver gets 15 years after killing six in accident

Peter Noble, 39, who had drunk 13 pints of lager and two Bacardi Breezers - bottles of spirits with a mixer - was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser containing eight passengers when he ran into a Daewoo car on the other side of the road, the Sheffield Crown Court heard.

The Daewoo's occupants, Roy Holmes, 79, his wife Audrey 69, and daughter-in-law, Diane, 47, were killed in the crash, as were three of Noble's passengers, John Heywood, 42, David Wood, 35, and father-of-three Dennis Royston, 36.

Noble, of Thorpe Salvin, South Yorkshire, was found guilty of six charges of causing death by dangerous driving.

The jury heard Noble had started drinking at noon on July 2 last year, driving from pub to pub and picking up friends along the way. His passengers told the court Noble had appeared "glazed" as he swayed from lane to lane along a main road at speeds of up to 80 miles (130 kilometres) an hour.

"He was driving like a loony," said one witness who was knocked unconscious in the accident.

Noble, who suffered minor injuries, fled the scene after being freed from the wreckage of his vehicle, calling his girlfriend to pick him up.

Interviewed by police the next day, Noble claimed one of his friends killed in the crash had been driving but, interrogated a second time, he admitted driving and said water on the road had made the large four-wheeled drive vehicle skid out of control.

During the trial Noble claimed that his alcohol consumption had not affected his driving. He told the court he had drunk an average of 20 pints every weekend over a period of 15 to 20 years.

(kil/dpa)