Reading Crown Court Sentencing Results

Tomasz Kroker was driving a lorry and scrolling through music on his mobile phone, which distracted him for almost a kilometre, leading him to crash into a stationary vehicle at 50mph on the A34 dual carriageway north of Newbury in Berkshire on August 10, 2016. The vehicle carried Tracey Houghton, 45, her sons Ethan Houghton, 13, and Josh Houghton, 11, and her stepdaughter Aimee Goldsmith, 11, resulting in their immediate deaths as their car was crushed underneath a heavy goods vehicle. A man was seriously injured, and four other people were hurt in the incident.

Harjeevan Randhawa was driving an Audi on the M4 motorway when he rear-ended a Renault Clio in the middle lane between junctions 10 and 11 on the westbound carriageway around 4pm on December 24, 2015. This caused the Clio to cross the carriageway, smash through bushes, and overturn in a ditch on the hard shoulder. The couple in the Clio sustained cuts, bruises, and arm pain. Randhawa fled the scene and was later arrested at his home address in Reading, where his car was found with substantial front damage. He was over the prescribed alcohol limit at the time.

Robert Brown, a British Airways captain, bludgeoned his 46-year-old wife Joanna to death with a claw hammer in their family home in October 2010 as their two young children cowered in a playroom. He dumped her body in a makeshift coffin in Windsor Great Park and was involved in obstructing a coroner in the execution of his duty.

Mark Alexander, then aged 22 and a law student, killed his 70-year-old father Samuel Alexander in September 2010 in a bid to escape his controlling influence. He buried the body in concrete in the garden of their family home in Drayton Parslow, Buckinghamshire, and was subsequently convicted.