'Wrong side' driver killed ex-pat in France

A Citroen van driven on the left-hand side by James Lee (33) collided head-on with Erik Williams' car travelling in the opposite direction in Taillebois on March 1 last year.

Lee received a five-month suspended jail term last night after being convicted in his absence at a court in Argentan of involuntary homicide in a road accident and driving on the wrong side of the road.

Today, Mr Williams's sister, Val Weedon, said she was "bitterly disappointed" at the sentence.

She said: "I cannot believe that such a paltry sentence can be imposed for a crash which caused my brother's death."

Mr Williams (58) who was unemployed, unmarried and had no children, lived in France for six years after moving from Banbury, Oxfordshire.

Official statements from the French authorities released to Mr Williams's family state that Lee had been in France for three weeks, had limited experience of driving on the country's roads and had drunk four lagers at a restaurant before getting behind the wheel.

In the statement, Lee, of Hook Lane, Aldingbourne, said he left the restaurant at about 7.35pm after spending the day renovating a property with a friend in Athis de L'Orne in the lower Normandy region.

Mr Williams died at the scene but Lee and his passenger escaped unharmed.

Lee was subsequently charged with involuntary homicide in a road accident and being in charge of a vehicle driving on the left-hand side of a two-way road.

He said in his statement that he thought Mr Williams did not have his lights on and that as a result responsibility for the collision should be shared.

At the hearing at the Tribunal Correctionnel of Argentan yesterday, Lee received a five-month suspended jail term, and a 500-euro (374) fine.