A speeding driver killed my parents – I feel sick now he might be released early

Stepping into Maidstone Combined Court Centre, I see him immediately. He’s standing on the other side of security with his wife, waiting for his mother-in-law to have her bag searched. On seeing a bereaved family, I think most responsible parties would feel so ashamed, so embarrassed by the role they’d played, that they would at least walk away. But not him. He seems totally unfazed by the sight of my brother Simon and me, the adult orphans he’s created. “Look, Simon, it’s the man that killed our parents,” I shout, unable to keep my cool. Scott Gunn – who was eventually found guilty of death by dangerous driving and jailed for 16 years – does not flinch (he denied the charge but was imprisoned). Instead his mother-in-law turns around, looks at my heavily pregnant body, and tuts loudly. This is our fourth trip here for a court hearing. It’s at this encounter, I realise we’re heading to trial. Will he ever take accountability for the deaths of my lovely mum Sue, 68, and dad Tom, 61? Shorts It’s cliché but true to say that bereaved families live with a life sentence. Ours began on the evening of 20 January 2024, when uniformed police officers turned up at my flat in London to give my brother and me, then 30 and 32, the terrible news. Earlier on that sunny but freezing Saturday, Gunn, then aged 36, drove his new SUV down Thurnham Lane, near Bearsted in Kent, in the opposite direction to his home. He’d just had his hair cut in Bearsted and the barber was his passenger. Reaching speeds of 87mph, he hit an ice patch and lost control of the 2.5 tonne, 4.4 litre BMW X5 he’d purchased seven days earlier. My mum, dad and their friend’s dog, Gracie – who they’d been out walking – were all killed. I have difficulty putting into words what such great loss feels like. The only way I can describe it is like having one of the dementors from Harry Potter suck out all the joy from your life. Everything that you were looking forward to. Nothing is ever the same again. Simon cancelled his upcoming wedding. It didn’t feel right without Mum and Dad who loved a big celebration. They’d been eagerly helping with preparations to make sure all the details were right. When I was clearing out their house, I found the confetti Mum had already put in little bags. Claire with her parents and brother Simon. ‘Simon cancelled his wedding. It didn’t feel right without Mum and Dad. When I was clearing their house, I found the confetti Mum had already put in little bags,” says Claire I still went on my honeymoon. The trip of a lifetime had been booked for six months after my wedding in September 2023. But after less than a week in Thailand, I couldn’t stop crying, so my husband booked flights for us to come home. Mum and Dad had been planning a retirement full of travel and adventure. It was cruel Dad died just two weeks before he was due to get his first pension payment. If Gunn was feeling similarly affected, then he was good at hiding it. In the months following the collision, I scoured his social media, and there he was pictured celebrating at a big family event and smiling on a foreign holiday. The night before Mum and Dad’s funeral, his wife asked for bouncy castle recommendations on a Facebook group. He’d even been driving up until he had his licence taken away 18 months later. I debated whether to go to the trial almost two years later. My son, the grandchild Mum and Dad never got to meet, was only six months old and needed me at home. But the idea of it happening without me there to represent them – even if only silently from the public gallery – was unbearable. I needed the judge and jury to know that they were more than just “the deceased”, as the defence called them. They were my parents. The worst bit wasn’t hearing Gunn deny that he was showing off his new car. It wasn’t hearing that the barber – who refused to help the police investigation – had fled the scene. It was the unavoidable pictures that formed in my mind after going through the events of the day in microscopic detail. “Look away,” Simon would whisper to me as the jury was shown a police walk-through of the scene beamed on TV screens around the court. Mum and Dad were there, covered in blankets and pixellated, but it was still torture. “They wouldn’t want us to see them like this.” The saying goes that if you’re going to kill someone, do it in your car. This is because killer drivers are usually treated more favourably than if they had committed other types of homicide. Sentences are usually short and some are spared jail completely (a report from 2017 found that the average sentence for killer drivers was four years). Every day, on average, four people are killed on British roads. On the face of it, my parents’ killer is the exception to this rule. In November 2025, Gunn was given a 16-year custodial sentence followed by an eight-year driving ban. I felt a sense of relief, not from the length of sentence, but by the judge’s sentencing remarks. He described Gunn’s remorse as “too little, too late” and expressed hope that a long prison spell would give him time to accept full responsibility for his actions. The trial had been agony, but the judge recognised our pain. ‘Knowing the man that robbed my parents’ of the happy retirement they deserved will be rewarded with early release makes me feel sick,’ says Claire But it’s only been seven months since that date and already the “16 years” are being eroded. With prisons running out of space, the Government passed the Sentencing Act in June, making up to 6,000 prisoners eligible for early release. Last week, we were told by the Probation Service that instead of serving at least two-thirds of his sentence, Gunn will be eligible for release after just 50 per cent of time served. His driving ban will commence once he’s left prison. The Sentencing Act has prompted calls by the Conservatives to exempt sex offenders from early release. Andy Burnham is said to be considering the idea. But – unsurprisingly to anyone who has been affected by road crime – an exemption for killer drivers is not part of the debate. Knowing the man that robbed my parents’ of the happy retirement they deserved will be rewarded with early release makes me feel sick. Justice was served but now looks to be snatched away. I understand prisons are full. But if exemptions are to be granted, we shouldn’t differentiate by offence type. We should be looking at whether the offender has shown remorse. Did they spare their victims the trauma of a trial? This would further incentivise defendants to plead guilty and relieve pressure on our overwhelmed courts. Otherwise, what is the point in locking people up in the first place? Surely, the purpose of prison is to educate the offender, so they don’t reoffend? Worryingly, Gunn’s release could be even sooner. At the time of writing, he has applied to appeal against both the conviction and the sentence. There’s no early release for the life term I’m serving. Although I get a brief reprieve for a second when I wake up in the morning – a moment of griefless bliss before reality sets in and I remember that it wasn’t just a dream. My parents, who were my moral compass, my safety net and the only people to love me unconditionally, are gone. And there was no chance to say goodbye. The legislation on sentencing come into effect on 2 September so there’s still time for a policy change. Otherwise, it’ll be another great day to kill someone in your car.