Former JP said to have dozed off before road crash

A FORMER magistrate whose dangerous driving left a woman with life-changing injuries in a head-on smash is believed to have dozed off at the wheel.

- ROB KENNEDY Court Reporter

Jacquelin Curtis was driving in Northumberland early one morning when she veered on to the wrong side of the road and crashed into a car coming the other way.

Victim Susan Richards suffered horrific injuries, including fractures to her spine, skull, patella and foot and a bleed on the brain. Prosecutors said they believe Curtis fell asleep after travelling through the night from Kent, where she owned a nursery, to Galashiels.

She had shared the driving with her former police officer husband and denied she had fallen asleep before drifting into the wrong lane and causing the head-on crash, which also left her badly injured.

Curtis, 61, who used to live in Whitley Bay and served as a magistrate for 15 years in Northumberland and Kent before moving to Galashiels, in Scotland, denied causing serious injury by dangerous driving but jurors found her guilty by a majority of 11 to 1.

She will be sentenced in January and Judge Tom Moran told her: “This is an extremely sad situation for everybody concerned. I recognise how strong the argument is that you should not receive an immediate prison sentence but the court needs to know exactly what the options are.”