‘Our lives have been destroyed’ – Heartbroken mother says as driver is jailed for nine years for killing her son, three, and daughter

The parents of four-year-old Gracie-Ann Lucas and three-year-old Jayden-Lee Lucas (pictured together right) say their lives have been ‘devastated’ after the siblings were killed in a crash on the M4 near Newport this February.

Grief-stricken Rhiannon Lucas and her partner Adam Saunders (pictured together left) were joined by other members of their family, including the children’s father, outside Cardiff Crown Court today as the man responsible for the crash was jailed for more than nine years. Martin Newman (pictured inset top), 41, sipped from a bottle of wine as he swerved across the M4 near Tredegar Park in Newport, Gwent, South Wales, before crashing into a red Ford Fiesta carrying the young family.

Witnesses said he was ‘glued to his phone’ before watching in horror as he hit the family’s vehicle ‘at speed’, creating an ‘almighty bang’. Newman told police on the scene: ‘I want to f*****g die’ after holding one of the children in his blood-soaked hands as they fell unconscious. Newman, of Croeserw, near Neath, pleaded guilty to causing the deaths of the children by dangerous driving.

He also admitted seriously injuring their mother after she suffered a fractured rib and torn liver. He was jailed for nine years and four months and banned from the road for 14 years and 8 months.