PCSO convicted after fatal crash

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Helen Murray wept when she was found guilty of careless driving

A police community support officer who caused a fatal traffic accident in which her son was killed has been banned from driving for nine months.

Helen Murray, 38, of Dobson Walk, Corby, was found guilty at Northampton Magistrates' Court of driving without due care and attention.

Her son Luke Murray and his friend Terence McMahon, both 13, were killed in the crash on 28 April last year.

Murray was also fined £500. The accident happened on the A427 in Corby.

The prosecution said she showed "inattention" when she pulled across a main road in her Ford Ka into the path of an oncoming transit van.

I would never risk my children's lives, I would never risk the children in the car Helen Murray

Sarah Brooks, prosecuting, told the court Murray had pulled across the road to turn right into the path of an oncoming van driven by Alan Scales.

She said: "This is a very tragic collision. Mr Scales has come from Market Harborough along that road.

"He approaches the junction and as he does so a Ford Ka motor vehicle comes across the front of his Transit. He can't avoid the collision."

Miss Brooks said an independent witness saw Ms Murray pull straight across the carriageway in one manoeuvre, without stopping.

Earlier Murray told the court: "I remember looking at my right, seeing a vehicle in the slip road.

"Then I looked at the road and it was clear. The next thing I saw the headlight and the grill in front of my windscreen and that was it.

"All I remember was the cars on the slip road but nothing more. I definitely looked, I would never cross the road if anything was coming.

"I would never risk my children's lives, I would never risk the children in the car."

Ms Murray said she had not seen the van because it was not there to be seen.

She said she thought it could have been on the other side of the road, or in a hatched section of the carriageway, where she would not have expected it to be.