FATHER'S FURY AS PC'S KILLER GETS SEVEN YEARS

As convicted robber John Heaton, 48, was starting his jail term, Barry Tooley said even his 26-year-old son, a man committed to the police force and to the justice system, would have been offended.

Speaking from his home in America, Mr Tooley, a 51-year-old company manager in Michigan, said: "Someone committing a robbery would get more than seven years.

"No sentence would bring Jeff back to us but a life sentence is more appropriate for taking someone's life.

"Jeff was a man whose views on justice were fairly black and white, right and wrong.

"He was determined to stop people breaking the law and he took his job very seriously.

"He would have been totally insulted by this sentence."

Heaton originally denied causing death by dangerous driving and committing an act intended to pervert the course of justice by setting fire to a van.

Yesterday he changed his plea to guilty.

Jailing him, Judge Anthony Thorpe said: "The knowledge that you have taken that young life is a knowledge that you will carry with you to the grave.

"Courts have a special duty to protect public servants who are trying to carry out often dangerous duties on behalf of the public.

"Parliament has decided that the maximum penalty for this offence is ten years, whereas the maximum penalty for burglary is 14 years. This might strike the public as an odd approach to the value placed on human life, but I am bound by the law as it is.

"Although these pleas were not offered at the first opportunity I said at the pleas and directions hearing that credit would not be lost if you later decided to accept your responsibility for these offences as you needed time to take full legal advice from leading counsel."

Judge Thorpe said no sentence would bring back a "fine young officer."

He said: "You failed to stop for an officer carrying out his duty to protect the public by enforcing the speed limits on this dangerous road.

"The officer was wearing a highly visible jacket in a well lit street on a clear night. That officer behaved perfectly correctly and did nothing that could have caused you to collide with him. He was in no way the author of his own misfortune.

"If you say you nodded off I do not regard that as a mitigating feature in this case as I have no doubt alcohol played a part in that unfitness to drive."

The court heard Heaton, who has a criminal record dating back to the Sixties and has served several prison sentences - the last when he was jailed for eight years for robbery in 1982 - had drunk at least four pints before falling asleep at the wheel.

When PC Tooley recorded the speed of Heaton's Renault van at 51mph in the 30mph zone with his laser gun and stepped into the road to flag him down, he was hit and sent flying.

A passing nurse tried to resuscitate him as the van drove off along Brighton Road, Shoreham, but he died 12 hours later in Worthing Hospital.

Heaton, 48, of Newmarket Road, Brighton, who said he had put crime behind him and was doing heavy labouring jobs, claimed he had nodded off and only saw a brilliant light when he woke with a jolt.

The court heard it was a fine night and the road was well lit when PC Tooley tried to flag the driver down using his arms and a torch.

Richard Camden-Pratt QC told the court Heaton panicked after the accident and his old criminal habits were to blame for setting fire to the van at Devil's Dyke.

He had also tried to commit suicide by sitting in another van with a length of tube leading into it from the exhaust, but had pulled himself together and given himself up through a solicitor, Chichester Crown Court was told. Mr Camden-Pratt said after the accident it was suggested the van had been aimed at PC Tooley, that he was dragged by it and it was being treated as murder or manslaughter.

But he told the court that "in the cool light of day" it was dealing with a case of a man falling asleep at the wheel and the cause of death was an impact with the van and not a dragging.

He added: "If there can be any comfort for the family it is that it was a tragedy and not deliberate."

The court heard PC Tooley described as "an experienced, committed and highly-motivated officer".

He had always had a burning ambition to become a police officer and joined the Sussex force in 1990.

He had been a traffic officer at Shoreham for two years.

His family live in Felpham, near Bognor, where all three Tooley sons attended the same community college.

Brother Russ, 23, works at Arun Leisure Centre and Chris, 17, is still studying for A levels at Felpham Community College.

Their brother was given a full police funeral at Chichester Cathedral in May.

However, parents Barry and Veronica also added some highly moving and personal touches to the ceremony.

His coffin was carried into the cathedral bearing his cap and a floral display of his warrant card number CT483 as the song Smile by Nat King Cole echoed through the 900-year-old building.

It was chosen by the family because of the lyrics - "Smile though your heart is breaking" and "Smile, what's the use of crying?"

The service ended to the sound of the theme from PC Tooley's favourite film, Star Wars.

Fellow traffic officers formed a guard of honour and hundreds of mourners heard Chief Constable Paul Whitehouse describe how a colleague of the dead officer had written in a condolence book: "When one of us falls, the rest of us stumble."

PC Tooley was later buried at Lancing and Sompting cemetery.

Speaking after the case, senior police officers said they were glad the matter was finally at an end.

Supt Jim Hammond, head of the Sussex Police traffic department where PC Tooley worked, said: "Our thoughts are with the family and colleagues of Jeff at this difficult time."

Chief Constable Paul Whitehouse, who wept at PC Tooley's funeral, said: "I am glad this matter is finally over for the force and the family. Jeff's death was a sad loss to everyone."

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