Husband jailed for murdering wife in deliberate M1 crash

Ian Walters, who was badly injured in the crash, was given a life term and ordered to serve a minimum of 17 years

Tracey Walters died in hospital two days after the accident (PA)

A former driving instructor has been convicted of murdering his wife after he deliberately drove their car into a motorway embankment.

Ian Walters, of Swindon, Wiltshire, was charged with murder after CCTV footage recorded his vehicle moving from the centre of the M1 motorway to the hard shoulder shortly before the crash.

At the time Walters and his wife Tracey, who died in hospital two days after the crash, were returning from a “make or break” holiday in Yorkshire, Leicester Crown Court heard.

The wreckage following the crash (PA)

The first witness to the scene, 39-year-old training consultant Robin Goss, told the court that the driver of the Mitsubishi L200 appeared to deliberately swerve across the road.

“It completely disappeared and I remember looking into the hard shoulder,” he told the court. “Then I saw what looked like a little explosion.”

Walters, who was badly injured in the crash, was given a life term and ordered to serve a minimum of 17 years.

Ian Walters was described as a 'bully' by the judge (PA)

Throughout the six-week trial Walters denied murdering his wife, telling jurors he could think of “no reasonable reason” for the crash and that he remembered nothing of the two hour journey.

Judge Nicholas Dean QC condemned Walters as a “narcissistic bully” and said that although his actions were “not premeditated”, his behaviour was “an aggravating feature in this case.”