Police killer drunk driver jailed for 14 years

A drunk driver who killed two police officers has been jailed for 14 years on manslaughter charges.

Leayon Dudley, 41, from Oakhurst Road in Birmingham, had originally received a life sentence for killing PCs Andrew Munn and Bryan Moore in the accident, which happened in Leicestershire in 2002.

Dudley had been convicted of murdering one officer and unlawfully killing the other, but the Court of Appeal overturned the convictions.

A re-trial had been due to begin last week, but the prosecution could not bring a second trial to court on the basis of two murder charges because Dudley had already been acquitted of PC Munn’s murder.

The fatal accident occurred on the A42 in Leicestershire on August 15, 2002. Dudley, who was almost two times over the legal alcohol limit, had been chased by police for almost 50 miles across four counties, before his white Transit van hit PC Munn and PC Moore’s patrol car, which was parked in a lay-by.

The officers had stopped to lay a stinger-type device to puncture the wheels of Dudley’s speeding van in an attempt to get it to stop. Dudley hit the patrol car at more than 80pmh, setting it alight and killing both officers.

Sentencing Dudley at Stafford Crown Court today, Judge Mr Justice Mitting said: “Your decision condemned one officer, and as it happens, his passenger to death. I sentence you on the basis that you deliberately took a risk of the life of at least one and, as it happened, two police officers doing their duty. It is the duty of the courts to do their best to protect the lives of police officers doing their duty.”

Dudley was also banned from driving for ten years.

PC Munn’s widow, Alison Munn, told reporters outside the court that she felt “cheated” by the manslaughter charge. Mrs Munn said: “This man has now been given the right to diminish his sentence, diminish his convictions and quite literally get away with murder. Are our husbands’ lives worth that little?”

(KMcA/SP)