A footballer was jailed for seven years yesterday for causing the deaths of two boys when he drunkenly drove his Range Rover into their car.

Arron Peak, 10, and his brother Ben, 8, were on a day out with their father and a group of friends when they encountered Luke McCormick, 25, “driving like an idiot” at about 90mph while two times over the drink-drive limit.

The boys were killed and their father, Philip, was seriously injured when their Toyota Previa was struck from behind by the goalkeeper of the Championship side Plymouth Argyle, who was on his way home from a team-mate’s wedding in the early hours of June 7. Police believe that McCormick had only narrowly avoided crashing a number of times before the fatal accident.

McCormick was found to have 74 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms. He pleaded guilty at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court to charges of causing death by dangerous driving and driving with excess alcohol.

The boys’ mother, Amanda, 30, sobbed loudly as the court was told details of the crash. Mr Peak, 37, who accompanied his wife to the court yesterday, has been in a wheelchair since the crash.

Mr Peak, from Partington, Manchester, had been driving his two sons and three friends along the M6 on a day trip to Silverstone racetrack when the crash happened shortly before 5.45am.

Angry friends and relatives of the Peak family confronted McCormick outside the court yesterday, holding pictures of the dead brothers. The boys’ uncle, Steven Peak, simply told him: “You killed my nephews.”

In the court, McCormick, dressed in a dark suit, kept his head bowed and covered his face with his hand as it was revealed that he told witnesses at the scene: “I am so sorry, I’m sorry. I just fell asleep. I fell asleep, I’m sorry.”

The court was also told how he had sobbed “uncontrollably” at the police station after being arrested.

Other motorists on the scene said that McCormick had been “driving like an idiot”. They estimated his speed to be about 90mph.

Judge Paul Glenn told McCormick that a custodial sentence was inevitable, and proceeded to sentence him to seven years and four months in jail. The maximum penalty is 14 years. In a victim-impact statement submitted to the judge, Mr and Mrs Peak told how their lives had been “totally devastated” by the deaths of their only children. “Our whole lives have been shattered . . . all our hopes and dreams for the future have been taken away from us.”

Later, the family also said it was “offensive” that McCormick’s defence counsel had described the footballer’s nightmares and flashbacks in mitigation. John Jones, for the defence, said: “He was a professional footballer with a potentially glittering future. His career would have developed; the rewards in every sense of the word would be limitless. This was lost and indeed lost for ever. The Luke McCormick who appears before you today is a shadow of his former self.”

But in a statement issued by the Peak family after the hearing, they said: “We find it offensive that in court, his barrister spoke of the effect this had on Luke. We will carry the scars of this for ever.”

The family also expressed disappointment that McCormick would be elibible for parole after serving three years of his sentence.

The Coventry-born footballer had his contract with the Championship team Plymouth Argyle cancelled by mutual consent a month after the crash, although he did not admit to the charges at a previous hearing, which forced the Peak family to return to court.

Sergeant Steve Robinson, of the Central Motorway Police, said that McCormick had only narrowly avoided a number of crashes before the fatal accident.

“I am shocked at the speed and the alcohol,” he said. “If only he had stopped, this tragedy could have been avoided.”

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