A mother who caused the death of her two children when she drunkenly crashed into the back of a lorry on the motorway has been jailed for more than four years.

Mary McCann, aged 35, survived the horror smash on the M1 motorway on August 9 last year, but her children Lily, aged 4 and Smaller, who celebrated his 10th birthday that day, were killed almost instantly.

A third child who was in the car was unharmed.

Following the funerals of her two children in September 2021, McCann took off her ankle tag and went on the run, failing to show up for a court hearing, before she was arrested and taken into custody about two weeks later. She later pleaded guilty to two charges of causing death by careless driving while under the influence of alcohol.

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At a hearing at Aylesbury Crown Court on Monday, McCann, of Bamford Avenue, Derby, was sentenced to four years and one month in prison.

Laban Leake, the defence barrister representing McCann, described the burden his client would have to bear for the rest of her life.

He said: “A mother who is responsible for the death of her own children, her own flesh and blood, carries a torch of self-loathing for the rest of her life.

“The longer that suffering the greater the torture, and it may be that if at the last, if in that dying light one’s life flashes before one’s eyes then in the case of Mary McCann that sight will be one of irredeemable horror.”

The court heard from prosecutor Stephen Shay how McCann was over the drink drive limit at 11.12pm when she was travelling northbound between junctions 14 and 15 of the M1 motorway while a 60mph speed limit was in place. Experts calculated that McCann was driving at at least 72mph.

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Mr Shay told the court that McCann was driving in the second lane when “for no obvious reason” she drifted into the first lane and crashed into the back of a lorry, being driven at a safe speed by Simon Denton.

McCann attempted to swerve out of the way of the lorry but did not react quickly enough to prevent the collision.

In the crash, McCann’s four-year-old daughter Lily was thrown from the vehicle and onto the road. Her 10-year-old son Smaller was thrown around inside the vehicle, fatally injuring his head. The car did not stop moving until 42 seconds after impact.

The court heard how the children were not wearing seatbelts and that there was only one child car seat in the vehicle when two were needed.

Another driver who stopped to help in the aftermath overheard McCann say “God, why didn’t I put their seatbelts on?”

Sentencing McCann, Judge Francis Sheridan said: “This is a heart-breaking case to have to sentence a mother for killing two of her own children because she was drunk and because she was driving as badly as you were.

“That is a disgrace that you as a mother could drive your own children while over the limit.”

Judge Sheridan sentenced McCann, who appeared via video link from HMP Bronzefield, to four years and one month for each of the two charges, but she will serve the sentences concurrently.

After sentencing her to prison, Judge Sheridan also disqualified McCann from driving for seven years and two months.

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