Man jailed for drink drive killings

Natalie, Matthew and Shirley Braithwaite

A drunk driver who caused the deaths of three members of a Yorkshire family has been jailed for 10 years.

Justin Elder, 29, from Inverness, hit the Braithwaite family as they walked in the fishing village of Gairloch in the Scottish Highlands on a summer afternoon last year.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Elder, who had drunk eight pints of lager and two vodkas before the accident, pleaded guilty to culpable homicide.

Shirley Braithwaite, 51, her 22-year-old daughter Natalie and her 19-year-old son Matthew, from Barnsley, died after being struck by Elder.

Passing sentence, judge Roderick Macdonald QC said it was a lamentable episode which had taken the lives of three innocent people.

Mrs Braithwaite's husband Kenneth survived because he was walking some distance behind and saw his family being killed.

Elder has been drinking beer and vodka

Speaking before Elder was sentenced, Mr Braithwaite said: "It was just a totally pointless accident. It's just destroyed a family, two kids there that had everything going for them.

"They were so happy with what they were doing and had so much potential in front of them."

He left court without comment when Elder was sentenced on Thursday.

The family from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, had been due to return home from their Highland holiday the following day.

They were walking through the village when Elder lost control of his speeding car and ploughed into them.

All three were thrown into a field by the force of the impact.

The court heard that staff in the bar in Gairloch had twice prevented Elder from driving by taking the car keys from him.

However, he returned with a friend. His friend took the car and then changed seats with Elder.