Drink-driver jailed for 8 years after model dies in wrong-way M62 crash

Published on 14/11/2012 01:56

A DRINK-driver who killed an 
aspiring model when driving the wrong way along a motorway has been jailed for eight years.

Rebecca Caine, 20, from Leeds, died from multiple injuries in the head-on collision between junctions 21 and 22 of the M62 in Littleborough, Greater Manchester.

Zimbabwean national Wilfred Museka, 31, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at an earlier hearing at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.

Museka, who gained political asylum after arriving in the UK in 2000, had been to a family party in Manchester. He drank so much alcohol that he could not recall how or why he had later travelled to the border of West Yorkshire where the crash took place, the court heard.

His vehicle careered into the path of a car containing Miss Caine, who was a rear back seat passenger. She had just returned from holiday and had visited Manchester to see a friend perform at a nightclub in the city and was on the journey home in the early hours of 16 September.

Museka, who had driven from his home in Clayton at about 10pm the previous evening to attend a nearby party, was arrested and found to be more than twice the drink-drive limit. He had never held a full driving licence and had 11 previous convictions for driving matters including driving with excess alcohol.

Judge Adrian Smith said: “This can properly be described as a flagrant disregard of the basic rules of motoring caused by a self-inflicted inability to exercise any judgment by consuming large amounts of alcohol.”

Tina Landale, prosecuting, said Miss Caine and three male friends had spent a happy evening together in Manchester. The other occupants of the car received cuts and bruises.