A driver who killed his partner and her mother in a crash has been jailed for six years and nine months at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Stephen MacPherson had admitted causing the deaths of Lynn Paterson, 41, and her mother Margert McGarvie, 70, by driving dangerously and at speeds of over 90 miles per hour on a road in the Black Isle in April 2007.
At an earlier hearing, the court was told that one passenger in the car said that the speedometer was reading 130 mph before the crash. The Peugeot became airborne when it crossed a hump-back bridge and crashed into a dry stone dyke before being propelled into a field. Two young girls were also badly hurt in the smash.
A police investigator described the scene as resembling a "small air crash" because so much debris was scattered over the field.
The court heard that the car drove along the B9163 Balblair to Culbokie road for a while, then turned and headed back towards Balblair. Part of the route was a long, straight section of road ending in a hump-backed bridge with stone parapets. Although the speed limit is 60mph, Macpherson began to accelerate along the straight. He lost control as the vehicle hit the bridge.
The judge, Lord Menzies, told MacPherson he would have been jailed for nine years had he not pled guilty.
It emerged that Macpherson had a previous conviction for drink driving and a previous conviction for dangerous driving in the 1990s.
Lord Menzies listed four factors accounting sentence. First of all he said MacPherson killed not one, but two people. He had driven at a crazy speed along a minor road and continued to drive at that speed despite the obvious hazard. Thirdly he told McPherson he had continued at that reckless speed despite the warnings from his passengers to slow down.
Finally he said MacPherson's previous convictions suggested he had a cavalier and dangerous attitude to road traffic laws
The judge told Macpherson that the consequences of his driving would stay with him for the rest of his life.
