NO JUSTICE FOR ERIC
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Suspended sentence for killing former
Hebden Bridge resident, Eric Williams
A Bognor Regis builder has been convicted of causing the death of Eric Williams in a car crash while driving on the wrong side of a country road in France.
James Lee, 33, who had been drinking, was driving his Citroen on the left hand side of the road when it collided head-on with Eric Williams's car travelling in the opposite direction in Taillebois on March 1 last year.
Lee was given a five-month suspended jail term after he was convicted in his absence at a court in Argentan of involuntary homicide in a road accident and driving on the wrong side of the road.
Mr Williams's sister, Val Weedon, said she is "bitterly disappointed" at the sentence.
She said: "I cannot believe that such a paltry sentence can be imposed for a crash which caused my brother's death."
Mr Williams, 58, was a carpenter and had been helping out in a nearby cafe. Eric was well known in Hebden Bridge. He moved here in 1975 when he was part of the community of Queens Terrace squatters. Although he had been living in France for some years he still had many friends in our town, and returned regularly.
See also Lives Remembered