Mentally-ill man sentenced for killing couple in head-on crash

John Spink, 47, steered his car into the path of a VW Fox driven by Gordon Cousen, 79, and his partner Peggy Nolan, 83, in a probable suicide attempt, a court heard.

Ms Nolan died at the scene of the crash last August 12 and Mr Cousen died a month later in hospital.

Spink had been living with his parents after being released after a period of detention under the Mental Health Act eight years ago for a psychotic disorder following his misuse of drugs.

Despite twice unsuccessfully trying to drown himself in the River Humber there was no further psychiatric intervention until the day before the fatal crash which a judge described “as close to murder as it gets.”

Grimsby Crown Court heard Spink attended the emergency department at Hull Royal Infirmary claiming he was suicidal, was hearing voices and had attempted to gas himself in his car.

Prosecutor Anil Murray said he was told by staff in no uncertain terms not to drive but he was not given any medication.

He was to be admitted overnight at the hospital, to be taken to the Great Oaks mental health unit in Scunthorpe the next day but he absconded and drove to the mental health unit himself. He was about to be let into a secure ward by a nurse when he went off again.

He had been driving around for a while when he crossed paths with the couple who were returning home to Barton-upon-Humber after shopping in Scunthorpe.

He appeared to have been driving normally before crossing into the path of the VW Fox, on the A1077 near South Ferriby, causing a head-on collision.

One motorist told police: “He left them no chance at all.”

Spink, of Winteringham, near Scunthorpe, admitted causing the deaths of the couple by dangerous driving at an earlier hearing.

He entered the plea on the basis that although he accepted “deliberately” driving at the couple’s car, it was not to commit suicide.

The court heard he had been worried by false rumours circulating that he was HIV positive but it may never be known why he acted as he did.

Spink, who was found to have cannabis in his system, suffered a collapsed lung and broken arm in the crash.

He told police a “pack of lies” saying he had to overtake a vehicle and the sun was in his eyes. Spink claimed to have no recollection of the crash and told a doctor: “I knew I was going to prison before I hit that car.”

Mr Cousen’s nephew Geoffrey Stevenson said in a victim impact statement read in court he could not put into words his feelings of loss.

“The deaths have left him and his family devastated,” said Mr Murray.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Pablo Vandenabeele, who has assessed Spink, said he was “acutely psychotic” and depressed at the time of the crash and had probably been like that for months. Spink had told him people were spreading false rumours and putting postings on the internet about him having HIV. He told the court: “I am satisfied he was acutely disturbed. It probably was a suicide attempt but we will probably never know.”

Sentencing Spink to indefinite detention in secure accommodation, Judge Jeremy Richardson told Spink: “No-one will ever know what possessed you to cross from one side of the road to the other and cause a head-on collision and the deaths of two wholly innocent senior citizens.”

It was a “deliberate” act committed while he was mentally ill. The judge said it was likely he would be detained for the rest of his life, adding: “You are, I repeat, a very dangerous man. You are likely to remain a very dangerous man.”