Speeding drink-driver jailed for killing Harry Chapman in crash

A drink driver who crashed and killed a man as he drove 97mph in a 30mph zone has been jailed for more than 11 years.

Harry Chapman, 20, died when his Ford Fiesta was hit by Scott Gorey's Jaguar XF on Aldridge Road, Streetly, West Midlands, on 7 October 2022.

Gorey, 51, from Sutton Road, Walsall, admitted causing death by dangerous driving at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

He was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison.

Police said he failed to stop for officers shortly before the crash.

Mr Chapman's mother Claire said Gorey, who had been at a funeral, had put the cost of a taxi above the cost of her son's life.

Speaking after sentencing, she said: "I still go into his bedroom and open his curtains every morning, speak to him and shut them every night and I don't know if I'll ever accept that my son's never coming home."

Mr Chapman had been approaching his 21st birthday and had been bowling with a friend and his sister on the night of the crash.

After dropping his friend off, his car was struck by Gorey's car, which was travelling on the wrong side of the road.

In a statement read out in court, Mr Chapman's father, Adam, said he was "an absolute superstar with a heart of gold".

In an emotive statement read to the court and addressing Gorey, Mrs Chapman said: "Harry was our world, the fun in the house, the banter the mischief and always happy."

She said she had heard Gorey's car "roaring up the road" before the collision and felt a sense of dread when her son did not reply to messages.

She said she held his hand as he died in hospital and added: "I talked to him and I gave him his last kiss, it was a goodbye that was never meant to happen.

"A brutal goodbye, a goodbye I relive every single day."

Mrs Chapman said her son's death had caused her night terrors, anxiety, loss of appetite and a fear of driving at night and her daughter also "shut down".

She said: "You didn't just kill my son, you killed my daughter's spirit and took part of my soul."

In mitigation, Gorey's barrister said he had shown "genuine remorse", but the judge said it had been "an appalling case of causing death by dangerous driving".

Mrs Chapman concluded: "Harry's legacy will live on forever because we will make sure his happy-go-lucky, kind, gently funny nature is never forgotten.

"Your legacy will stay with you forever, but for very different reasons," she told Gorey.

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