The family of a man killed by a suicidal motorist have criticised the courts for allowing him to walkfree.

Raymond Swinford, 75, was sentenced to 17 months in prison for crashing head-on into another car during a bungled suicide attempt after he faced allegations of sex crimes.

He hit grandfather Cyril Thorpe, 64, of Whiteways, Bognor, who was catapulted into a tree and killed.

But Swinford walked free from Lewes Crown Court last week because he had been held on remand following his arrest for eight and a half months - the equivalent of serving half his 17-month sentence.

J u d g e Richard Brown decided on the sentence after hearing Swinford may soon die of cancer.

Last night Mr Thorpe's son Gavin, 28, said his mother Petronella, 56, and sister Eloise, 24, were struggling to come to terms with his death.

Mr Thorpe, of Pulborough Way, Bognor, said: "The sentence leaves us with a sense of injustice and a feeling that we have been cheated.

"Dad has been denied the last 40 years of his life, looking after and enjoying his family.

"When I look at mum, I can see that she has been torn into pieces by the events.

"When I have children he should be here to see them grow up and have the same impact on their life that he has had on mine.

"I feel so angry that someone has cut his life and all those future memories so short out of pure selfishness."

Mr Thorpe said his mother, who has terminal cancer, was struggling to afford to keep hold of the family home.

He said: "Mum should be in remission now but all the stress and emotional turmoil she has been put through due to dad's death has brought the cancer back.

"I worry she won't have the strength or will to fight it this time and I will find myself parentless.

"As to the financial and ongoing problems that have come about as a result of dad dying, I am still not sure how to make it possible for mum to stay in the house she and dad worked so hard for all their lives."

Swinford, a divorced father of two, of Chapel Close, Littlehampton, left a suicide note at his partner's home but claims he changed his mind before the crash on June 13 last year.

He was due to be questioned by police over sex assaults on a boy of seven and a girl of ten in the 1990s.