1/1
A DRINK-DRIVER was jailed for eight years and eight months for causing the deaths of a devoted couple by ploughing into their vehicle on the A59 near Skipton. Thomas Finnegan, 29, had also taken cocaine when his Mercedes Vito van smashed into a Nissan Juke being driven by Mark Gregson shortly before 10pm on January 24 last year. Mr Gregson, 52, and his partner Claire Lucas, 43, were pronounced dead at the scene. Finnegan’s girlfriend, Lucille Hammond, who was the front seat passenger in the van, suffered a fractured spine. Finnegan, of Park Lane, North Newington, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving, one offence of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, driving while under the influence of drugs and driving with excess alcohol.
Claire Lucas THE actions of Claire Lucas’ “jealous and violent” partner Daniel Heath hindered a pathologist in assessing how she died, the inquest into her death heard today. Detective Chief Inspector Fiona Wynne said CCTV showed that Heath was repeatedly in and out of her flat in Tang Hall, York, between the time when Claire, 25, a nursery worker, last contacted her friends and her body was found three days later. “He must have known that Claire Lucas had deceased,” she told the Northallerton inquest. She quoted Dr Jennifer Bolton’s report in which the pathologist said it had been extremely difficult to establish the cause of death because of the state of Claire’s body by the time she held a post mortem on July 3, 2018.