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Young Girls Paralysed After Driver's Car Chase

Young Girls Paralysed After Driver's Car Chase

A "reckless" driver chased a car before he crashed his company 4x4 into another vehicle, leaving two young sisters paralysed from the waist down.

Five-year-old Katrina Raiba and eight-year-old Karlina were travelling in their father's Vauxhall Signum when they suffered life-changing injuries in the smash.

Video from the dashboard camera of the victims' car showed Andrew Nay's Land Rover Discovery veer towards them on the A509 near Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, last October.

The footage helped convict Nay who witnesses said made an "absolutely ridiculous" right-hand turn across oncoming traffic just before the crash.

The trial was told Nay had been tailgating and "bullying" a woman driving a Mazda people carrier.

Other drivers claimed Nay's car was so close they could not see its headlights in their rear-view mirrors.

Nay, of Corby, Northamptonshire, who has worked for Land Rover as a lead off-road driving instructor, was seen laughing and smiling with his passenger before the collision, Northampton Crown Court heard.

Motorist Fraser Hopes' Mercedes was undertaken by Nay as he waited to turn into the B547 near Little Harrowden.

Mr Hopes told the trial: "There were two gentlemen in the car. They looked to me as if they were smiling and having a joke, having a laugh."

Nay admitted four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving but denied chasing the Mazda.

He claimed he had noticed "nothing in particular" during his journey in his Land Rover and was turning towards a garden centre.

But Judge Adrienne Lucking QC rejected Nay's testimony, ruling he crashed while chasing the Mazda and "harried" the car after being prevented from leaving a roundabout on the A14.

Nay was told an immediate custodial sentence will be at the forefront of the court's mind when he is sentenced on Friday.

Karlina and Katrina's parents, Roberts Raibais and Renate Raiba, originally from Latvia, said their lives had been "completely shattered" by Nay's actions and no sentence would be enough.

The couple, who suffered broken bones, said: "Andrew Nay's reckless actions had devastating consequences for our two beautiful daughters.

"Katrina and Karlina were happy, active children and he has robbed them of that.

"We will never be able to forgive him.

"Every day they ask 'when will we start feeling our legs again?' They think it's going to get better and it's too hard to tell them."