Mother jailed for causing death of son in crash on blind bend in Dorset
39 year old Barbara Roe from Ludgershall in Wiltshire, was driving with her son on the A354 near East Woodyates in North Dorset last March when she began travelling at speed.
She then attempted to overtake a Ford Transit as she approached a blind left-hand bend, crossing the solid white line marking in the middle of the road.
A cattle transporter was travelling in the opposite direction and Roe collided with it.
Members of the public attempted to give first aid at the scene before the emergency services attended.
However, despite their best efforts, Roe's nine-year-old son Zac Roe died at the scene.
Police Constable Gavin Newbury, of the Serious Collision Investigation Team (SCIT), said: 'This tragic case is the cruellest of reminders of the truly devastating consequences that sadly occur when motorists drive in a dangerous or reckless manner.
'Our thoughts are absolutely with Zac's loved ones, who have been supported by specially trained officers throughout.
"While we fully appreciate nothing will ever make up for their loss, our role has been to diligently investigate the circumstances of this collision and bring the evidence before the courts to allow the justice process to follow its course.'
Roe was sentenced to five years in prison and disqualified from driving for a period of seven and a half years.
Zac's father and his paternal grandparents described him as a "much-loved boy".
In a statement, they said: 'His father adored him, as did we.
'He was a popular boy who had many friends.
'He had an amazing imagination. He just loved making things out of Lego, twigs, cardboard, string and Sellotape.
"Just the same as his dad did when he was Zac's age.
'He was talented at drawing and spent many hours adding detail to whatever he drew.
'We called him nature boy as he loved being outdoors, making dens, riding his bike and scooter, playing parkour and army games.
'He just loved life. He was always smiling.
'He should be here now enjoying his life.
'Money has been raised and there in now a therapy dog named after Zac. This is Zac's legacy as he loved dogs. If anyone one would like to donate in Zac's memory please go to the 'Dogs for Health' Facebook page.
'We will never stop loving him.
'The good memories are too hard to think about yet. But when we are ready to remember them, we will know how much he loved his short life, which was brutally taken away.
'No one will ever forget our wonderful Zac.
'Our grief will last until our last breath.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
a minute ago
- Scottish Sun
Nato jets scrambled after Putin launches massive overnight drone and missile attack on Ukraine
Five people have been injured after an apartment building was bombed in Kyiv NATO member Poland has scrambled fighter jets after Russia's latest blitz on Ukraine. The jets took to the skies as Vladimir Putin sent the latest wave of kamikaze drones and rockets at Kyiv. 1 Poland scrambled jets after Putin launched his latest onslaught Credit: Getty Eight people, including a two-year-old girl, were injured in the strikes with shrapnel wounds after one bomb hit an apartment building. Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that all of the people were residents of a multi-storey apartment building in the city's Darnytskyi district on the left bank of the Dnipro River. The Polish Ministry of Defence said the jets took off as a precautionary measure during the strikes. They said: "Polish and allied aircraft on standby were scrambled and ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems were placed on the highest level of combat readiness." Four of those injured in the attack, which took place soon after midnight on Monday, have been hospitalised, with one person in serious condition, the head of Kyiv's military administration, Tymur Tkachenko. More to follow... For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos. Like us on Facebook at TheSunUS and follow us on X at @TheUSSun
Daily Mirror
2 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Brit in terror probe claimed he would 'make 9/11 look like episode of Teletubbies'
Curtis Ross had a fascination with 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski, a lone wolf terrorist who killed three Americans, and was arrested after causing an explosion with two gas canisters in Fife A man held in a terror probe claimed he would make the 9/11 attacks 'look like an episode of the Teletubbies'. Curtis Ross had a fascination with 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski – the lone wolf terrorist who killed three Americans and injured many others over nearly 20 years. Ross, 24, had been arrested after posting online a clip of himself blowing up two gas canisters near the River Leven in Methil, Fife. His home was raided and police found a drawing marked 'Project Payback'. A phone and tablet device were also examined which included the voice message about the 2001 Twin Towers atrocity and him discussing with others 'murdering all the people who wronged you'. Ross appeared in the dock last week at the High Court in Glasgow. He pled guilty to a charge of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner which included sending the concerning messages and voice notes on Snapchat and Facebook, causing an explosion, filming it and putting the footage on social media between June 25 and July 31 last year. He had a not guilty plea to a charge under the Terrorism Act accepted. Ross was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at a later date. A Facebook friend of Ross had spotted the explosion video in July last year. He showed it to a young woman who was so "alarmed" she contacted police. Ross was held that day after being spotted in Methil. Detectives – along with Counter Terrorism officers – searched his home in the town. They found the 'Project Payback' drawing along with a sketch of a 'homemade explosive device'. Inside a desk were various items including a roll of wire, mobile phone batteries, nails, screws and a watch. There were also initial fears about a package in the property which led to homes in the area being evacuated, but it did not contain an explosive. Prosecutor Greg Farrell said Ross "laughed" when first quizzed about what he had filmed claiming it was an "attempt at satire comedy". But, he confirmed that he had blew up two butane gas canisters and had posted it on his Facebook page under the name of a Batman comic villain. Mr Farrell: "He made reference to social media corrupting his decisions." Ross was asked about his interest in Kaczynski - captured in 1996 - and said he was "apparently some kind of mail bomber" that he had learned more about by going down a "rabbit hole" online. Ross went on to insist that he himself was "not a terrorist" as he had "made peace with everything in his life". Mr Farrell told the court of a Snapchat conversation with a friend. Ross stated at one stage: "I am going to make 9/11 look like an episode of the Teletubbies, f*** sake." He then backtracked again claiming it was "satire comedy" and that he was "only joking". The friend replied: "F*** Islam, f*** them all." During further rants, Ross said he had been let down by the "justice system" complaining he had been treated differently because he is a man. In messages to another contact, he said: "I have realised that I simply cannot allow what is happening to humanity and our world to continue. I can and will have an impact on preventing the worst from happening xx." The court heard there were also photos, videos and sketches of the "Unabomber" on the devices as well as images of a pipe bomb and firearms together with "various other clips which suggest violence". Lord Colbeck deferred sentencing for reports.
Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
The state will do anything but fix the migrant crisis
Migrant hotel protests are erupting across the country, as 'tinderbox' Britain catches fire. What began with a series of protests in Epping, Essex, over the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl by a recently arrived Ethiopian migrant, has now spread, as Brits air long-standing grievances about asylum seekers they have been forced to host in their own communities. A powerful tendency now exists in the British state towards displacement activity Demonstrations have so far been reported in Bournemouth, Southampton and Portsmouth, Norwich, Leeds and Wolverhampton, Sutton-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, Altrincham and even at Canary Wharf in London. With years of unaddressed anger rapidly making themselves felt, the police, pulled in all directions, are struggling to keep up. 'Local commanders are once again being forced to choose between keeping the peace at home or plugging national gaps', admits the head of the Police Federation. Still, it seems there is one thing the government is more than happy to devote resources to: trawling the internet for anti-migrant sentiment. The Telegraph reports that an elite team of police officers convened by the Home Office is set to monitor social media to flag up early signs of unrest. Working out of the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC) in Westminster the new National Internet Intelligence Investigations team will 'maximise social media intelligence' gathering in order to 'help local forces manage public safety threats and risks'. If this new division was just about intelligence-gathering that would be one thing. It's true that social media is in invaluable resource for following events on the ground at such gatherings, while local Facebook groups are often where grassroots protests are organised. Yet we know that when it comes to the British state and social media, censorship and punishment for online speech is never far behind. Ever since Sir Keir Starmer repeatedly linked the Southport unrest last year with social media, the idea has firmly taken root in Whitehall that the best way to stop unrest is to aggressively police the internet. Ofcom, the broadcast regulator, already takes this view, and the link has even been drawn in Department for Education guidance on how to talk to schoolchildren about the Southport disorder. In a recent report, the police inspectorate said that that forces must be 'better prepared and resourced to monitor, analyse, use and respond to online content', which it argues was a risk to public safety. This general zeal for social-media policing is why Big Brother Watch believes the new unit is very likely to infringe on free speech. The investigations team is 'Orwellian' and 'disturbing', says interim director Rebecca Vincent, creating the possibility that it 'will attempt to interfere with online content' as other government bodies are known to have done during Covid. As if there weren't enough threats to free speech already. This week age verification provisions in the latest stage of the Online Safety Act (OSA) kicked in, meaning that some footage of protests is now inaccessible on social media for many users. Not even parliamentary privilege is safe from the censorship regime. Katie Lam's searing April speech on the rape gangs, in which she quoted court transcripts and survivors, could not be watched on X without age verification. We are beginning to look like North Korea with rainbow flags: for the public's 'safety', footage exposing grievous failures of the British state now cannot be viewed in the UK. Little wonder, given the OSA explicitly earmarks content relating to 'child sexual abuse' and 'illegal immigration and people smuggling' as the 'kinds of illegal content and activity that platforms need to protect users from'. The Conservatives, who bequeathed us this blank cheque for digital authoritarianism, certainly need to take a long, hard look at themselves. The claims that the OSA is merely about restricting access to pornography has been exposed as a mere fig leaf. And still things could still get worse. As the Free Speech Union has noted, shortly after last year's riots, the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a pro-censorship lobby group with ties to Morgan McSweeney, 'hosted a closed-door meeting under the Chatham House rule to discuss the role of social media in civil unrest'. In attendance were officials from the Home Office, the Department of Science, Information and Technology, Ofcom and other organisations. The CCDH proposals that emerged included amending the OSA to 'grant Ofcom additional 'emergency response' powers to fight 'misinformation' that poses a 'threat' to 'national security' and 'the health or safety of the public''. This would give Secretary of State Peter Kyle the ability to directly flag unapproved content to be taken down at a time of 'crisis'. Should the unrest continue this could well be coming down the track. What all this illustrates is just how ill-equipped the people in charge are to deal with Britain's problems, as The Spectator's Madeline Grant noted earlier this week. A powerful tendency now exists in the British state towards displacement activity. Spin doctors 'manage' the news. Police surveil social media. The government shuffles asylum seekers from hotel to hotel, or to HMOs, or even to privately rented accommodation (which it uses your own taxes to outbid you for). For his part, the prime minister has been tweeting about the women's football. As the unrest grows, leading politicians continue doggedly insist that Britain remains a 'a successful multi-ethnic, multi-faith country'. In reality, there are answers to the asylum hotels crisis, it's just that the government simply lacks the will to act. Large numbers of illegal migrants need to be deported, while those that are here should be placed in a secure holding facility somewhere remote. What is surely obvious by now where they should not be: in hotels, in an Essex market town 500 yards from a school; on the Bournemouth beachfront; in the London's financial district; in a Leeds suburb right next to a shopping centre. As it is, however, it seems the regime will try anything and everything before addressing people's real concerns.
