THE daughter of a Pontypool woman, killed by a dangerous driver in Blaenavon, has described the anguish caused by the fatal crash on her entire family.

Ray Jones, 50, was travelling on the back of a motorbike with her husband Brian, with the pair celebrating their forthcoming 28th wedding anniversary with friends, when it was involved in an incident with a Volvo C70 on the B4246.

The driver of the car, John Mark Morgan, 47, of Ton-Mawr Road, of Blaenavon, was sentenced to four years in prison at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday, December 15.

South Wales Argus:

He previously had pleaded not guilty to the charge of causing death by dangerous driving, but changed his plea midway the November trial.

Prosecuting, Matthew Cobbe read aloud to the court the statement of Mrs Jones’ daughter Katie Jenkins.

“My whole life was ripped apart at 8.50pm on September 17, 2016 when I had the worst phone call I’ve ever received from my dad,” said Mr Cobbe.

“I couldn’t understand really what he was saying as he was crying so hard.

“All I heard was ‘there’s been an accident’ and ‘we are outside Blaenavon fire station’.”

The court heard that Mrs Jenkins described the scene at the fire station, before going off to Abergavenny’s Nevill Hall hospital.

Mrs Jenkins said that after she and her father returned from the hospital, Mr Jones went straight upstairs and she said could hear his him “breaking his heart”.

“Being a mum is so hard without my mum. I need you here just to check that I’m doing things properly,” said Mr Cobbe.

“All our lives ruined forever. And this man, this person, gets to breathe, get to live another day, gets to see his family.

“It’s not fair. Our Ray of sunshine has gone, stolen from us,” said Mr Cobbe.

Defending, Ieuan Bennett said that Morgan’s change of plea during the trial was an indication of his remorse at causing the accident, but admitted it was “entirely avoidable”.

“He did finally admit that his driving was dangerous,” said Mr Bennett.

“There was a brief but obvious danger arising from a seriously dangerous manoeuvre.”

He added that Morgan had previous convictions, although were unrelated to motorist offences and had been “a relatively competent driver for many years”.

Mr Bennett told the court that since the trial, Morgan had experienced the difficulties of imprisonment, having been on remand since its conclusion.

“It has distinctly impacted upon him,” he said, “It will mark his life in the future.

“It is going to be a difficult experience for him.”

Concluding, judge Crowther described the victim impact statements that he read and heard as “lacerating” in their emotional content.

“There is no criticism of anybody here expect of you,” said the judge, “This was a seriously dangerous manoeuvre."

“She was 50. She was the centre of her family.”

Morgan received a sentence of four years in prison and will be disqualified from driving for six years.

He will be required to take an extended retest when reapplying for his licence.

A family statement read: “Since the incident last September the person, namely Mark Morgan, has caused significant heartache to our family.

“Not only has he caused the death of our beautiful Ray, he has dragged us through court and shared no remorse whatsoever until the final moments of the trial.

“The sentence that he has been given today will have no impact on his life, whereas we have been left with a life without Ray.

“We are relieved that the CCTV has been released and shows everyone that there was clearly only one man’s actions at fault.

“We would like to thank the witnesses and would like to thank the police for their hard work and support.”

Leighton Mawer, of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: “By presenting eye witness accounts, collision investigation experts and CCTV, the CPS was able to portray clear evidence of the standard of Morgan’s driving.

“The prosecution case was that his manoeuvre was dangerous and the strength of evidence presented resulted in a guilty plea. Morgan’s driving that evening had tragic consequences.

“We hope that Mr Jones and his family find some comfort in the conclusion of the case and our thoughts and sympathies are with them.”