"Selfish" Bozeat drink-driver who left social worker with devastating injuries jailed

A drink-driver who ignored attempts by members of the public to get him to stop before ploughing into a social worker's car has been jailed.

Peter Botterill, 55, was involved in at least FOUR collisions which culminated in a horror head-on crash and left a woman with devastating injuries.

The victim has been left unable to work, relying on her husband who himself had a breakdown because of the trauma and needing adaptations to her home because she was in a wheelchair.

Sentencing, judge Rupert Mayo said: "The county has been robbed of a social worker because of what you did."

Today (Tuesday) Northampton Crown Court heard the devastating sequence of events started in Priory Road, Wollaston, at about 4.55pm on January 9, 2018.

A man spotted a grey Peugout stopped in the road with the lights on and smoke coming from the exhaust, and 35 minutes later it was in the same place. Botterill, of Easton Lane in Bozeat, was asleep in the driver's seat.

The man knocked on the window and rang police. Botterill seemed confused and officers urged the member of the public to take the key from the ignition. But before he was able to Botterill drove off towards York Road and pulled out onto the A509, causing another motorist to emergency brake.

He then veered towards Wellingborough, drifting across the road and nearly hitting other vehicles. One driver overtook him and Botterill went into the back of him before driving off.

The man whose car he hit followed him to Irchester Country Park where he tried to block him in, but again Botterill drove into him.

He refused to stop and pulled onto Gipsy Lane, where he then went into the back of a Vauxhall Vectra. A mum and her three children were inside and they suffered neck pain.

Again Botterill pulled away. He went along Irchester Road, stopped at a give way sign, and then went straight through the second causing another car to take evasive action.

But he then took another bend on the wrong side of the road and careered head-on into an oncoming car.

Prosecuting, Justin Wigoder said the social worker driving the other car, who was on her way home from work, saw headlights coming towards her as she approached the bend.

He said: "She had no time to react."

Her car span three times and she had to be cut out by fire crews.

The social worker suffered horrific injuries which included a fractured collarbone, dislocated hip, fractured hip socket, leg fracture and a dislocated ankle and required major surgery.

When police arrived Botterill was still in his car. He appeared confused, was unsteady on his feet and his speech was slurred.

A later blood test found he was three-and-a-half times the drink-drive limit. Earlier this year he admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

In a victim impact statement, the social worker he injured said: "Memories of the crash remain vivid for me. I will never forget the feeling of utter terror, pain and helplessness."

The public-spirited citizen he had earlier crashed into had his car written off, had to take time off work and said the incident had affected him far more than he thought it would.

In a statement read out in court he said he felt ignored as a victim and had been treated just as a witness.

The court heard mitigation that Botterill wanted to apologise to those involved and had expressed "genuine" remorse.

He was living with his ill mother - who has since died - and said the weight of her illness on him led him to drink, sometimes consuming half a litre of vodka or whisky in a day.

The court also heard he had sought help since the crash and that any sentence could be suspended because he cared for his elderly father and that there was "a realistic prospect of rehabilitation".

But judge Rupert Mayo said: "This was the most appalling, selfish course of dangerous driving imaginable."

Botterill was jailed for 30 months and will spend half in custody with the remainder on licence.

He will be banned from driving for two years and will have to take an extended retest.

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