Call for total drink-driving ban

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The couple want a total ban on driving after drinking alcohol

The parents of two boys killed in a crash caused by footballer Luke McCormick have called for a total ban on driving after drinking alcohol.

Amanda and Philip Peak, of Partington, near Manchester, said his seven-year sentence for the crash on the M6 in Staffordshire was "insulting".

The 25-year-old could be released in three-and-a-half years after killing Arron, 10, and eight-year-old Ben.

Mr Peak said: "It's us now who've got the death sentence."

Stafford Crown Court heard McCormick had been driving "like an idiot" before the crash on 7 June.

'Pressing the trigger'

Police found the former Plymouth Argyle goalkeeper, who admitted causing the deaths and driving with excess alcohol, was more than twice the legal limit.

Mr Peak, who is still recovering from the injuries he suffered in the crash, said: "He had the keys, he turned the ignition on and that was just like pressing the trigger."

You should not be able to take a little bit of drink. It should be a total ban Philip Peak

His wife Amanda said: "His sentence is actually insulting.

"You get more for going out and getting into a fight than you do for getting into a lethal weapon?"

She added: "They need to have tougher sentences. If you're given seven years, you serve seven years."

"He will be out before he's 29 so he can still have kids, he will be younger than I am now. He can come out and have children and have grandchildren.

"I bet you a pound to a penny he will not be at a Christmas table thinking of the kids he's just killed and their grandkids that they're not going to have.

"He has destroyed our lives, we can't have kids, I can't have any more kids.

"It's just tipped our lives upside down because we don't know what we're going to do. What do we do at Christmas?"

'Ridiculous' sentence

Mr Peak said the law should be changed so that it would be illegal to drive after drinking any alcohol.

Luke McCormick could be out of jail in three-and-a-half years

He said: "It should be no drinking and driving. You should not be able to take a little bit of drink. It should be a total ban."

Mrs Peak said she thought that drink-drivers who killed should be sentenced to 14 years for each person they killed.

She added: "He's got three-and-a-half years for two killings. It's ridiculous."

Mrs Peak said she had found it found it "heart-wrenching" sitting "a stone's throw away" from McCormick during the court case.

She added: "It's heart-wrenching because you want to get up and beat the living daylights out of the person."

The boys and their father had been on their way to the Silverstone racing track in Northamptonshire when the crash happened.

While Mr Peak was recovering in hospital, his wife tried to explain to him that their sons were dead but he did not understand what she was saying.

She added: "Then you are having to tell him seven days later, on his birthday, because he's asking me why he hasn't had a card off the boys and where the boys were.

"You've got to tell him over again that the boys aren't here and the boys are dead.

"It's not a nice feeling."