I hate football especially players thinking they are untouchable (raping, fighting etc) setting bad examples. So Lee Hughes should do every day of his 6 years. It shows how idiotic football mentality is when he spent £80 per round of drinks but not a cab home.

Hopefully it will help reinforce the idea that drink driving and dangerous driving can ruin your life and many others

The Guardian

Premiership footballer Lee Hughes, who killed a father of four after ploughing his £100,000 Mercedes sports coupe into another car after a night in the pub, was yesterday sentenced to six years in prison for causing death by dangerous driving.

The West Bromwich Albion striker fled the scene on foot and spent 34 hours on the run before turning himself into police over the accident near his home in Meriden, West Midlands.

A jury at Coventry crown court took 90 minutes to find the 28-year-old guilty of killing Douglas Graham, 56, who was sitting in the back of an oncoming Renault, shortly after midnight last November 23.

The footballer - who had been drinking whisky in two pubs before the accident - bit his lip but showed no other sign of emotion when the verdict was delivered.

Relatives of Mr Graham, including his wife Maureen and two sons and daughters, greeted the jury's finding with cries of "Yes!" before bursting into tears.

Judge Christopher Hodson told the footballer he had showed a "callous disregard" for the victims - including the other driver, Albert Frisby, who is currently a wheelchair user due to his injuries - by running away from the scene.

"You clearly believed that if you had been breathalysed, you would have been over the limit," he said.

Yesterday's verdict has brought the curtain down on Hughes' once fairytale career: West Brom last night cancelled his contract with immediate effect.

Hughes, known to West Brom fans as the "Ginger Ninja", had been a lifelong fan of the "Baggies" and always dreamed of playing for the club.
He was signed after making an impression with non-league Kidderminster Harriers, and at the height of his career with West Brom scored 31 goals during the 1998-9 season, more than anyone else in all four divisions.

After an unsuccessful spell at Coventry City he returned to West Brom, scoring 12 goals in 36 appearances last season. It was hours after the 0-0 home draw against Reading that the fatal accident happened.

The court heard that Hughes had been driving himself and four friends home after visiting two pubs, the Queen's Head and Poachers Retreat.

The footballer insisted he had drunk just two Jack Daniels before getting behind the wheel, although the jury heard evidence that he had consumed far more.

It was alleged his Croatian wife, Anna, who was sitting in the public gallery yesterday, drove him to a friend's home in Smethwick, more than 20 miles away, so that her husband would not have to take a breath test because he was over the limit.

The judge told Hughes that alcohol had "clearly played a part" in the tragedy.

"I realise that your football career is at an end, but remember that Douglas Graham's life is at an end.

"In running away you showed a callous disregard for others who were in the other car, one of whom was dead, another of whom was seriously injured, and two others who were injured," the judge told Hughes.

"I am quite certain that in running away you were thinking of yourself and you were attempting to avoid the legal consequences of driving having consumed alcohol."

The player had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident.

The court heard Hughes' car was in good working order with no faults to its powerful brakes.

The nine men and three women jurors had earlier been urged not to "allow fame or fortune or wealth" to influence their decision.

"You are not here dealing with a young, feckless, inexperienced youth prone to panic, but a 28-year-old married man able to afford legal advice and the support of his employers and agent if he did not himself know what was the proper thing to do," the judge said.

In a statement released after the verdict, 50-year-old Mrs Graham, who gave evidence during the trial, described her husband as a "loving, caring" man.

"Something has been taken away from my family that can never be replaced," she said.

"We know that we must now simply attempt to come to terms with the loss. We can only hope that the person involved will acknowledge what he has done to my family."

The thing that struck me when I read about this was that it happened late last year and only got sorted out now. Is that normal? It does seem like a no brainer so I can't understand why it would take so long. Also, did the passengers in Lee Hughes' car leg it as well. It sounds pretty pointless, him running away if he's got a carload of people there to identify him as the driver.

He ran away to avoid the breath/blood test, not to avoid revealing his identity.
His wife should be charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and if his pasengers lied, so should they.
My prediction is that Hughes will be out in 3 years and playing football again. At the age of 31, he could have another 4 years near the top. I can hear his new chairman now, " Lee bitterly regrets his past actions. He was found guilty in a court of law. He's served his sentence without complaint, in fact he's been a model prisoner. He's settled his debt to society and I now think it's time for Lee and everyone else to move on and for the newspapers to give him some space

This may sound a teensy bit draconian (what from a "leftie do gooder" such as myself) but surely getting into a ton or so of high speed metal while drunk should be at least counted as gross negligence manslaughter??? It seems odd to me that the penalty for killing someone with your car is so (comparatively) low.

Originally posted by evildrneil
...surely getting into a ton or so of high speed metal while drunk should be at least counted as gross negligence manslaughter??? It seems odd to me that the penalty for killing someone with your car is so (comparatively) low.

I observe sentences given to drink drivers who kill with interest. Nothing morbid; just for the reasons you describe above. I agree that sentences do seem low compared to killing by other methods.

The sentence of a six years in the slammer is a relatively severe one in this case, given that these offences have historically resulted in short prison sentences of a year or two, or even just a driving ban and fine.

All I can say is...(a) the judge ain't a West Brom fan or (b) the killed person may actually have been of some importance this time round.

Let's hope a severe sentence becomes an effective deterrent.

Anyway, this topic was discussed a couple of months ago here (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11867)

I think he got handed 6 years because he did a runner

I wondered how the good people at Mercedes would respond to Hughes' assertion that the brakes of the sportscar failed, causing the car to lose control:

Brakes on Hughes's car 'perfect' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/3536292.stm)

Six years is an incredibly lenient sentence for a person who through their gross negligence has taken the life of another man and caused the amount of injuries and suffering that this imbecile did.

Six years .... It should have been TWENTY SIX!

Originally posted by Ned Ludd
He ran away to avoid the breath/blood test, not to avoid revealing his identity.
His wife should be charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and if his pasengers lied, so should they.
My prediction is that Hughes will be out in 3 years and playing football again. At the age of 31, he could have another 4 years near the top. I can hear his new chairman now, " Lee bitterly regrets his past actions. He was found guilty in a court of law. He's served his sentence without complaint, in fact he's been a model prisoner. He's settled his debt to society and I now think it's time for Lee and everyone else to move on and for the newspapers to give him some space

you gotta think to yourself, this has killed his career,
im not saying whether he deserves to be locked up or not, because obviously he does,

but as for his career, when he comes out he will not be any good, he will be lucky to get a team when he comes out, because he wont have played for say 3 years at any such level

Originally posted by Abdul
I wondered how the good people at Mercedes would respond to Hughes' assertion that the brakes of the sportscar failed, causing the car to lose control:

Brakes on Hughes's car 'perfect' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/3536292.stm)
Isn't it amazing how brakes only 'fail' at the moment just before a crash?

Like the woman who wrote off my parked car. Her brakes 'failed' too. In actual fact, she hit the accelerator pedal, not the brake. :roll:

Originally posted by carcrash
I think he got handed 6 years because he did a runner

Aha! I thought the sentence was unusually long.

So if we break it down:
That's 6 months for drink driving
add 12 months for killing a guy
another 6 months for crippling another guy
and 4 years for legging it.

(Sorry, it's the strange weather patterns we're having)

:(

Originally posted by Robbie_Lovin
you gotta think to yourself, this has killed his career,
........but as for his career, when he comes out he will not be any good, he will be lucky to get a team when he comes out, because he wont have played for say 3 years at any such level
If he's released in say April 2007. He would be fit enough to play at the start of the next season 2007/2008 if he looks after himself in the nick. There are plenty of amoral club chairmen who'll give him a chance if they think they've picked up a bargain.

I'm a Burton Albion fan (in the conference and at that time still part-time so players only earning a few hundred quid a week) and we played West Brom in a friendly last year. Huges was playing and at every corner or free kick when one of our guys would step up to mark him, he kept saying to them things like 'How much do you earn loser? I"m on 15 grand a week' to try and put them off (only a few hundred there cos it was a pre-season game so we stood right behind the goal and could hear him loud and clear as the ground was a bit of a ghost town. His other line was 'what do you drive? I'll show you my convertible after the game' and that sort of thing, which is kind of ironic! In the end our big centre back ended up booting him half a mile into the air and now he's wound up in jail, couldn't happen to a nicer man. How much do you earn and what do you drive now Lee? That'll be a) nothing and b) erm, nothing!

Originally posted by Robbie_Lovin
you gotta think to yourself, this has killed his career,
im not saying whether he deserves to be locked up or not, because obviously he does

Thats not really any sort of mitigating cirumstances though is it? No-one forced him to drink and drive!

I'm afraid I still tend to think that people that kill when they drink and drive should be charged with grossly negligent manslaughter as it seems to me that thats what it is?

Originally posted by evildrneil
Thats not really any sort of mitigating cirumstances though is it? No-one forced him to drink and drive!

I'm afraid I still tend to think that people that kill when they drink and drive should be charged with grossly negligent manslaughter as it seems to me that thats what it is?

i never said anyone forced him to do it, i am tottally against drink driving, have fell out with people before for doing, was just pointing out to some1 else that he has in fact ruined his career, regardless of how fit he keeps himself in jail

Any decent human being after an accident who ever may have been at fault would try to help the injured and immediately summon assistance. It would appear that this bit of human refuse 'Lee Hughes' was quite obviously more concerned for his own hide than investigating the possibility that he may have been able to help dying and injured people in a car crash that was quite obviously HIS fault!

People like Hughes are selfish self centered scum. I certainly hope he is given a hard time in prison .... he deserves it!!