Kate Swale died aged 21 when her boyfriend Jamie Hughes’ car swerved off the M62 and hit a tree
Jamie Hughes(Image: Merseyside Police)
A ketamine-fuelled drug driver swerved off the M62 and killed his girlfriend after picking her up following her shift at a pub. Kate Swale was “in the prime of her life” at the age of 21, but died when the car in which she was being carried as a passenger smashed into a tree on the embankment of the motorway.
Her boyfriend Jamie Hughes was more than three times over the legal limit for ketamine at the time of the collision. He would later tell the police that he could not recall the horror smash and that it “felt like a dream”.
Liverpool Crown Court heard today, Friday, that the now 23-year-old, of Belton Road in Huyton, had been in a relationship with Ms Swale for around nine months when the couple were travelling on the westbound carriageway between junction six at Tarbock Island and junction five at Bowring Park shortly after midnight on May 27, 2023. Hughes’ grey Vauxhall Corsa was situated in the third lane, with his partner sitting in the front passenger seat when their car suddenly drifted to the left and collided with a silver Mercedes C180 in lane two.
Christopher Stables, prosecuting, described how the driver of the latter vehicle, Thomas Parkinson, had been travelling from London to Liverpool at the time in order to catch a ferry to the Isle of Man. He recalled the other car coming “out of nowhere” before it smashed into the offside of his vehicle before veering off the motorway, rolling and “disappearing into the bushes”.
The Corsa was then said to have “hit something and been thrown back into the middle of the motorway”, where it came to a stop. Mr Parkinson’s front seat passenger Susan Salamah meanwhile said the incident had “all happened in a few seconds”, with the vehicle in question having “hit a tree and bounced back onto the motorway”.
Timothy Bradley, who was travelling behind both of the two cars involved in the collision, saw Hughes “drift into lane two” before the rear nearside of his car struck the front offside of the Mercedes. The Vauxhall would then continue into lane one “in a snake-like pattern” before proceeding onto the embankment and colliding with an object, which caused it to “spin back into the middle lane”.
Emergency services workers arrived at the scene within minutes, with one police officer describing Hughes’ car as being “amongst the most heavily damaged” they had seen during their 14-year career. He was said to have been “shaking and unsteady on his feet, with blood on his hands and head” and “appeared to be in shock”, with his breath smelling of alcohol and his eyes “reddened and glazed”.
The defendant confirmed at the scene that he had been the driver and confessed to using ketamine as “a way of winding down after work and relaxing”, adding: “It sort of rocked something, I swerved and blacked out. I felt like it was a dream.”
Paramedics administered CPR to Ms Swale at the roadside before she was transferred to Whiston Hospital. But she was pronounced dead at 3.33am as a result of a severe spinal injury.
Mr Stables said: “Perhaps mercifully, this would have proved immediately fatal. It appears that death was instantaneous, and she would not have suffered.”
(Image: UGC Desmond L. Bannon & Sons Family Funeral Directors)
Hughes was meanwhile taken to Aintree Hospital, where he passed a breathalyser test for alcohol but was found to be 3.7 times over the limit for ketamine. During a subsequent interview on June 6, he told detectives that he “could not remember how he had crashed” and only “recalled waking up and seeing his girlfriend” after his “body closed down”.
He detailed how he had collected Ms Swale from the Royal Arms in Edge Hill after she had finished her shift in the pub and that they had then “been for a drive”, travelling along the M57 before continuing onto the M62 back towards the city. Hughes said he had consumed one pint at the pub but “wouldn’t do drugs driving”, stating that he “used drugs when he was out but was not a regular user” and claiming that he had last taken illicit substances “days before”.
A series of WhatsApp and Instagram messages between him and Ms Swale were recovered from his phone and showed that they had extensively discussed his ketamine use over the course of the previous few days. Her first message to her boyfriend on May 24 had been “morning ket head”, while she added later the same day during the course of an apparent argument: “Blaming your sweaty ket addiction on me. Ta ra.”
Mr Stables said that she had “set certain conditions for them to stay together”, after which Hughes said he “couldn’t help his thoughts”. Ms Swale replied that he “could if he stopped taking drugs”, then told him during a series of messages on May 25, only two days before her death: “This ket situation causes murder all the time and you keep doing it.”
Hughes meanwhile was shown to have searched for “snorting ketamine”, “Special K drug effects, dangers and help” on the afternoon of May 24. The prosecution counsel added: “Here, a couple of days before the incident, the defendant was searching online appreciating that he had a ketamine problem.”
He has no previous convictions and held a clean driving licence, having passed his test in June 2021. Jason Smith, defending, told the court: “My learned friend described this as a tragedy. It is a tragedy for Kate’s family. It is a tragedy for Jamie Hughes’ family. The person responsible for this tragedy is Jamie Hughes, and he knows that.
“It is clear how much he feels the pain of what he has inflicted upon others. It is pain not for himself, it is the hurt and pain that has been inflicted upon others.
“He does not seek pity or mercy for what has happened to him, for what has happened over the past 12 months and for the significant prison sentence. He is genuinely contrite and remorseful.
“He accepts that what he did was not just wrong, it was horrifically wrong. His actions that evening cannot be excused and cannot have any proper, reasonable explanation put forward.”
Mr Smith added of his client’s “search for help for ketamine abuse” three days before the crash: “It is clear that, at this time, the defendant needed help. It is a significant feature that, whilst awaiting the charging decision and while awaiting the conclusion of these proceedings, Jamie Hughes has done all that he can to deal with the addiction he had and to address the issues he had in the hope that, when he is released, he is able to live a life which his parents describe as law abiding, in employment, working and contributing.
“That will be some time off, and he is aware of that. He knew when he pleaded guilty that the consequence would be a substantial term of imprisonment.
“He is still a young man who knows what he has done and who has made attempts to deal with the issues he had. He cannot turn back the clock, but at least he can attempt to do something about the future.
“References show the good person Jamie Hughes can be and was. What he did cannot be forgiven and cannot be forgotten. He knows that. Your honour has seen quite clearly the impact on his mental health and wellbeing.”
Hughes admitted causing death by dangerous driving and drug driving. He sat hunched over in the dock throughout the hearing and with his head in his hands at times before being jailed for six years and nine months.
Sentencing, Judge David Potter said: “The impact of your car when it left the carriageway was catastrophic. The vehicle was utterly destroyed. You left the vehicle and remained in shock at the scene. Emergency services made heroic efforts to resuscitate Kate, but her injuries were so catastrophic that she almost certainly died almost instantaneously in the collision between your vehicle and a tree.
“The impact of Kate’s death on the lives of the families and loved ones left behind is incalculable. She was clearly in the prime of her life. She was a loved and cherished daughter, granddaughter, niece and best friend. No sentence will reconcile her loved ones to their loss, nor will it cure their anguish.
“On the evidence before this court, your manoeuvre or drift from lane three to lane two was done without heeding the presence of that Mercedes and is therefore wholly explicable by your high levels of intoxication. The only explanation for your collision with the Mercedes was that your driving was highly impaired because you were highly intoxicated by ketamine.
“I have read a number of references that demonstrate the positive good character you have now lost. You were only 21 at the time of this incident, and are still young at 23.
“You have, I am sure, demonstrated genuine remorse and contrition by the fact that your girlfriend was killed by your actions. You have accepted yourself that this was horrifically wrong.
“You are clearly in pain and will continue with that pain for the foreseeable future. Since this offending, you have been able to move away from drug use. You have used your time constructively by the completion of qualifications in electrical engineering.
“The public must understand the dangers of driving having taken illegal drugs. They must understand that any level of intoxication above the prescribed limit places themselves and other road users at substantial risk of death or serious injury. Those who take drugs to the level you did before you decided to drive must understand that only immediate and significant sentence of imprisonment will be passed where death occurs.”
Hughes was also banned from driving for a total of eight years and five months and will be required to pass an extended retest before he is allowed back on the roads. He showed no reaction as he learned his sentence.