Mother of boy, eight, who was killed in 76mph car crash by his own drug-driving father the day after a cocaine binge weeps in court as she tells him ‘my life is over’ – and he is jailed for four years

• Leon Clarke, 40, drove his sons in a battered BMW after earlier taking cocaine
• He lost control at 76mph and smashed into truck, killing elder son Blake, eight
• Younger son Mason, six, had minor injuries in M60 crash in Greater Manchester
• The boys’ mother said her life had ‘ended’ while Clarke was jailed for four years
• ‘I will never be able to see my son again and it is destroying every inch of me’

A drugged-up father who lost control of his battered BMW while swerving lanes at 76mph was spotted holding his fatally injured son at the roadside, crying ‘I’ve killed my son’.

Delivery driver Leon Clarke, 40, picked up his sons Blake, eight, and Mason, six, for an access visit from their grandmother’s home after he spent the previous evening snorting cocaine.

Clarke was driving his unroadworthy BMW home over the speed limit during severe wet weather when the 3-series vehicle ‘aqua planed’ as he switched lanes on February 28, 2020.

It smashed into a highways maintenance truck parked on the hard shoulder of the M60 southbound in Greater Manchester.

Blake, who had been sitting in the back of the car, suffered fatal injuries in the impact and was pronounced dead an hour later in hospital. 

The boys’ mother Victoria Consterdine told a court that her life had ‘ended’ with the loss of her ‘sweet precious boy’.

She sobbed as she told Clarke: ‘For me, my life is over and I exist now only for Mason.’

In a statement released after Clarke was sentenced, she also revealed the heartbreak she felt at her son’s funeral, saying: ‘I knew this would be the last time I would see Blake, kiss him and touch his skin. I was screaming, shouting at him ”Please Blake, please wake up for mummy.” ‘ 

Delivery driver Leon Clarke, 40, was 13 and a half times the drug limit when he crashed his BMW on the M60 in Greater Manchester on February 28, 2020, his killing eight-year-old son Blake (pictured together)

Clarke was seen holding his fatally injured son at the roadside, crying ‘I’ve killed my son’

Mason, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the BMW, miraculously escaped with minor injuries to his arm.

Heartbroken mother pays tribute to her eight-year-old son 

Vicky Consterdine paid tribute to her eight-year-old son Blake Consterdine Clarke after he died when his father Leon Clarke’s car aquaplaned at 76mph.

She described how she has lived in a ‘continuous nightmare’ since her son was taken from her more than two years ago.

In a statement released by police after Clarke was sentenced, Ms Consterdine described her son as a ‘joker’, who was ‘popular’ and ‘very clever’.

She said: ‘He had a bright future. Blake was sensitive, affectionate, protective of Mason, his friends and me.

‘He loved school, so much so he couldn’t wait to get back to school on that Monday.

‘He loved his friends, which he had from nursery. He enjoyed street dance, computer games and Lego. Blake loved life and loved his family.

‘Having been told by the hospital that Blake had died and seeing Mason with minor injuries, I couldn’t understand how one of my children was okay and the other was dead.

‘On the day of Blake’s funeral, he was lay in his coffin.

‘I knew this would be the last time I would see Blake, kiss him and touch his skin. I was screaming, shouting at him ”Please Blake, please wake up for mummy.” ‘

Minshull Street Crown Court heard how the boys had spent the day with their grandparents before Clarke collected them to go to his partner’s house in Stockport.

Police said the weather was poor which affected the conditions of the motorway and forced many drivers to reduce their speed due to the heavy spray and standing water.

But when Clarke changed lanes his car went into an irreversible spin and the rear of his car collided with a Highways Iveco Tipper Van that was stationary on the hard shoulder.

The collision caused extensive damage to the back of the car where Blake was sat, Greater Manchester Police said.

As emergency services attended the scene, Clarke was seen in tears at the roadside and was holding Blake in his arms crying: ‘I’ve killed my son.’ 

Inquiries revealed his vehicle had deflated and worn rear tyres and was not insured. One tyre had a screw in it which was causing a slow puncture.

At Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, Clarke was jailed for four years after he admitted causing death by careless driving while over the drug driving limit.

In a harrowing statement, Ms Consterdine said: ‘I live in a continuous nightmare which I am yet to wake up from and this will continue for the rest of my life. All our lives have changed forever now we no longer have our sweet precious boy. 

‘We just adored him in every single way – he was our life and when he was killed, our hearts, minds and souls all went with him.’

She added: ‘The pain we feel is suffocating and all this torture continues because of you. That day Blake and Mason didn’t get a choice or a chance after they left their nannas. 

‘That choice was made for them by you and we are now left to live this life in devastation and pain which is beyond any repair.

‘What you chose to do as a supposedly responsible parent and adult means I will never be able to see my son again and it is destroying every inch of me. 

‘I wasn’t there to protect them both from you. I wasn’t there when my boys needed me.’

The 2pm tragedy occurred after Clarke collected Blake and Mason from their grandparents in Middleton, Greater Manchester, so the boys could spend the afternoon with him at his home in Marple, near Stockport. 

Both brothers were wearing their seatbelts as the BMW travelled in heavy rain along the M60 southbound at 76mph.

Clarke passed several warning signs about the weather before losing control in a large pool of water as he moved from the fast lane into the middle two lanes of the four-lane carriageway.

Robin Kitching prosecuting said: ‘There had been intermittent heavy rain and there was a significant amount of rainwater on the carriageway resulting in considerable spray from other vehicles.

‘The defendant was in the outside lane and indicated to move to his left at a time when his speed was in the region of 76mph. Driving at that speed in these conditions was not safe regardless of the state of the tyres on his vehicle.

‘As he pulled across, he lost control of the BMW on standing water and began aquaplaning or rotating as he tried to apply his brakes. The rotation was in part caused by the unequal grip exerted by the front and rear tyres due to their condition.’

The BMW spun 180 degrees across three lanes before ploughing rear first into the Iveco flatbed lorry which had been parked on the hard shoulder by two highways officials assessing damage to a crash barrier following another aquaplaning accident two hours earlier.

At Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, Clarke (left) was jailed for four years after he admitted causing death by careless driving while over the drug driving limit (Pictured with his son Blake, who died in the collision)

One of the inspectors who was filling out a report in the cabin on the truck was thrown forward against the windscreen by the force of the impact and momentarily lost consciousness.

Mason was helped from the vehicle by motorists who stopped at the scene whilst Blake had to be pulled through a rear window ahead of paramedics vainly attempting CPR at the roadside.

Mr Kitching added: ‘A roadside breath test proved negative but a test for drugs was positive. As this was being done, a member of the ambulance service said Blake had died and the defendant was totally distraught by the news.

‘When arrested and cautioned he replied: ‘Is he dead? Please?’ before breaking down in tears.’

Tests showed Clarke had 680 micrograms of the main metabolite of cocaine, Benzoylecgonine (BZE) per 100 millilitres of blood – the legal limit being 50mg. The court heard there was no evidence the manner of his driving was ‘impaired.’ He was under the limit for cocaine itself.

In interview Clarke said he had taken 0.5g of cocaine the previous evening but said he felt he was fit to drive and had been working prior to picking up Blake and Mason. He claimed he was travelling at between 50-60mph at the time of the crash before answering no comment to all questions.

In a statement Blake’s grandmother Christine said: ‘The day our precious Blake was killed was the worst and most horrendous day of our lives. We all fell to pieces and my daughter was in bits – and I mean bits.

‘All our hearts were shattered into tiny pieces and left broken forever. Blake was the light in her lives, so beautiful so kind so clever and so handsome. His mother is broken without her baby whilst Mason is lost without his big brother and best friend.

‘Blake had so much living to do. He enjoyed life so much and his dad took it all away from him. He wanted to be healthy and always thought about what he ate. Then his dad took drugs picked him and his brother up from us and killed him.’

In mitigation Phillip Barnes said: ‘No one hearing this case could fail to be touched by the family’s sense of pain and what they must be going through.

‘Leon Clarke is sorry – not the kind of sorry you hear from a house burglar clambering out of a window or a career criminal breaching his 10th court order. This is not the sort of sorry that comes from self-pity or fear of the consequences.

‘He is sorry for the fact that what he did means his son is no longer here to be with his family. No one could ever blame him as he blames himself. Blake was his son too. He will forever have the ghost of his son on his shoulder ‘

Clarke, a self-confessed ‘frequent’ cocaine user, who also admitted causing death while driving without insurance – will have to serve two years in jail before being freed on parole. Following his release he will have to serve a two year driving ban.

Ahead of sentencing Judge Mark Savill told Blake’s mother: ‘Thank you for your courage – he would have been proud of you.’

He told Clarke: ‘This was a tragic and unnecessary death of a bright, much-loved and rather wonderful eight-year-old boy who was your son.

‘You will of course be sentenced to imprisonment but that is nothing in comparison to the intangible and enduring prison of absolute loss, grief and pain to which you have now consigned Blake’s mother, brother, grandparents – and indeed yourself.

‘The anguished and heartbreaking words of his mother and grandmother wholly summarise this dreadful position. Your actions failed to ensure that you took care of Blake to the exacting standards every parent must aspire to.’

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