6 years for crash drunk driver who tried to blame dying wife

6 years for crash drunk driver who tried to blame dying wife

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By Staff Reporter

A DRUNK driver from Zimbabwe who dragged his dying wife from the passenger seat of their car to blame her for the fatal crash was starting a six year-year jail term on Thursday.

Vimbai Chakudunga was spotted pulling his 30-year-old wife Claire from the vehicle after they smashed into trees in a garden in Ravenshead, Notts, just weeks after their wedding.

The student nurse from Mansfield, who was branded "vermin" by his victim's family, walked away from the horrific crash with minor injuries.

But a jury at Nottingham Crown Court took just 25 minutes to find the 28-year-old guilty of causing death by careless driving and failing to give a blood specimen.

Mrs Chakudunga, who suffered a fractured skull, never regained consciousness following the crash on November 27 last year.

She died ten days later in hospital.

Her father, Anthony White, a former police officer who was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal for bravery for his role in the arrest of the infamous Black Panther, Donald Neilson, said Chakudunga was "vermin".

He said: "It makes you wonder what somebody has to do to get the maximum sentence.

"The judge talked tough then sentenced him to a little over half of the maximum.

"I wonder what he would have done if it was his own daughter."

Chakudunga told police in interview his wife had been driving at the time of the crash and insisted that he had been playing with the stereo at the time.

After he was spotted on CCTV footage driving to a local Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, he admitted driving earlier that evening but said the couple had swapped places before the crash.

He then dragged his wife from the car despite pleas from onlookers not to move the badly injured care assistant.

Strands of hair matching Mrs Chakudunga's DNA were found by forensic officers on the tree into which the car crashed and his blood was on the driver's airbag.

A roadside breath test found him to be over the alcohol limit but he refused to give a blood sample in hospital, insisting he was the passenger.
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