Wrong-Way Motorway Death Driver Museka Jailed

A drink-driver who killed an aspiring model by driving the wrong way down a motorway has been jailed for eight years.

Wilfred Museka was travelling at "motorway speed" when he caused a head-on crash that left 20-year-old Rebecca Caine, from Leeds, with fatal injuries.

Zimbabwean national Museka, 31, had pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at an earlier hearing at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.

Ms Caine's family and friends sobbed as the court heard how the force of the crash flung her from the car onto the M62 near Manchester.

She suffered severe injuries to her face, head and body.

Museka, who came to the UK as an asylum seeker from Zimbabwe, had also admitted fraudulently claiming to have held a full UK driving licence for 10 years, driving with no insurance and with excess alcohol.

Rebecca had been returning to Leeds from a night out in Manchester in the early hours of September 16. The court heard she was in the back seat of a car being driven by a friend. They were said to be "singing happily" in the vehicle shortly before the accident, between junctions 21 and 22.

Rebecca's parents, twin brother and younger sister were in court to see Museka jailed.

They paid tribute to her at the time of her death, in a statement which read: "As you can imagine our lives are shattered and our hearts are broken into pieces.

"She was a beautiful girl with her whole life ahead of her. She was embarking on a modelling career and would be finishing her final year of her business degree at Leeds University.

"Rebecca was a bright light that attracted everything to her with her infectious laugh and her beaming smile.

"She saw the best in everyone and was loved by hundreds of friends. The worst part is the emptiness and the total waste of a beautiful life. She was only 20 when she died.

"She was our little girl now she is our little angel. Something somewhere has failed us."

Museka had previously been convicted of drink-driving and had been caught driving while disqualified on three occasions in the past.

In sentencing Museka, Judge Adrian Smith said Miss Caine had a "bright and happy future to look forward to".

He added: "No sentence of this court can possibly reflect the loss of a life such as Becky's."