Update: Footballer McCormick jailed for M6 deaths

GOALKEEPER Luke McCormick has been jailed for seven years and four months for causing the deaths of two children by dangerous driving.

The 25-year-old, who used to play for Plymouth Argyle Football Club, pleaded guilty to the charge earlier today. He also admitted a charge of driving with excess alcohol.

McCormick has also been disqualified from driving for four years.

McCormick with his solicitor

McCormick entered his pleas at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court with his victims’ parents and relatives in the court room. Judge Paul Glenn told him: “A custodial sentence is inevitable.”

The court heard that when breathalysed, McCormick was found to have 74 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.

McCormick’s pleas related to a crash on the M6 between junctions 15 and 16, on Saturday, June 7 in which 10-year-old Arron Peak and his brother Benjamin, aged eight, were killed.

The boys, from Partington, Manchester, were on their way to the Silverstone racetrack for a day out.

Members of the victim’s family waited outside court

The Toyota Previa people carrier they were travelling in with their father and three friends was in collision with a black Range Rover shortly before 5.45am.

The boys’ father, Phil Peak, aged 37, who was at the wheel of the Toyota, was left seriously injured. He suffered a suspected broken neck and back in the crash and was treated at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

He was also at the court today, wearing a brace as a result of his injuries. He was accompanied by his wife and the boys’ mother, Amanda Peak, aged 30.

McCormick was verbally abused by the victim's family as he arrived at court