Jail for drink drive mum who killed daughter

A mother of two who killed her fiancÃ© and their six-year-old daughter in a 'catastrophic' car crash while almost double the drink-driving limit has been jailed for two years.

Carly Tomlinson had drunk two pints of lager and lime and three vodka and cokes before her blue Fiat Panda hit a stone wall in Belper, Derbyshire, in the early hours of Sunday, April 30 last year.

Her fiancé, James Watson, 28, and their daughter, Ruby Watson, were passengers in the car, which mounted the kerb before colliding with a telegraph pole.

Both were pronounced dead at the scene while Tomlinson, 24, suffered a broken back, pelvis and ribs.

Nottingham Crown Court heard Tomlinson had been travelling at 43mph in a 30mph zone on the two-mile journey back to her home from the Marehay Miners’ Welfare Club.

Her young daughter was “not properly secured” in her booster seat and Mr Watson was not wearing a seat belt at all.

The prosecution said “she simply had a very poor recollection of events that morning” when she was interviewed by officers in the months following the crash.

At a previous hearing in June, Tomlinson, of Nottingham Road, Belper, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by careless driving while unfit through drink.

As well as her prison term, she was disqualified from driving for four years.

Judge Gregory Dickinson QC told the former cleaner and police support worker: “In any view, this case is both serious and tragic.