Carly Tomlinson jailed for killing daughter and fiancé wishes she could ‘swap places’

A MUM who downed three vodkas and two pints before killing her fiancé and six-year-old daughter in a horror crash has claimed she is "forever crying" over the tragedy.

Carly Tomlinson was yesterday jailed for two years over the accident that claimed the life of her 28-year-old partner James Watson and daughter Ruby.

The mum was double the drink-driving limit when the car she was driving mounted the kerb and collided with a telegraph pole in Belper, Derbyshire, in April last year.

Speaking to the Mirror before her sentence yesterday, the she said: "I am deeply saddened by what happened that night and if I could swap places with James and Ruby, I would.

"I am forever crying thinking about the traumatic night. I can’t explain how remorseful I am about that night."

But Tomlinson, who suffered a broken back, pelvis and ribs in the crash, refused to take full responsibility for the crash.

She claimed her partner James - who she was due to wed the month after the crash - was partly to blame.

She said: "We should have known better."

The couple's young daughter was "not properly secured" in her booster seat and Mr Watson was not wearing a seat belt at all.

Nottingham Crown Court heard how Tomlinson had been travelling at 43mph in a 30mph zone on the two-mile journey back to her home from the Marehay Miners Welfare Club.

At a previous hearing on June 22, Tomlinson pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by careless driving while unfit through drink.

As well as her prison term, she was disqualified from driving for four years.

Judge Gregory Dickinson QC told the former cleaner and police support worker: "No one here knows why you drove. You should not have been driving. You knew that you must have had too much to drink.

"I suspect the physical injury is nothing compared to the emotional damage you have done to yourself.

"You killed your own child and your fiance - people that you loved and people that loved you. You will be haunted by this for the rest of your life."

Mr Watson's mother Janine Hitchcock said she could not attend court because she was "so angry" with "what she has done to my family".

In a victim impact statement read to the court by prosecutor Alex Wolfson, the 51-year-old said: "(Tomlinson) needs to pay for all the heartbreak she has done.

"Last year, on April 30, my son and granddaughter were killed in a crash caused by Carly Tomlinson. I am not supportive, I think she should pay for her actions.

"(Ruby) was killed by the actions of her mother. It makes me very angry that she made the decision to drink-drive."

She added: "My family has been completely torn apart and I feel awful like I can't breathe.

"I feel so strongly that she should be punished."

Detective sergeant Donna Tovell from Derbyshire police said that Carly Tomlinson had "to live with those consequences for the actions which she took".