A SERIAL drink-driver from Sheffield who could see out of only one eye has been jailed for eight years after killing two people in a crash while almost twice the limit.
Paul Henshaw, aged 54, of Ingfield Avenue, Tinsley, was already banned when he pulled his powerful Mitsubishi Pajero into the path of an oncoming car on the busy A19 near Hartlepool on November 1.
Andrew Grimes, driving a Ford Escort, and his passenger Lillian Prest, both 44, died at the scene of the crash, which twisted the car out of recognition.
The couple from Middlesbrough were together for more than 20 years, and had three children, the youngest of whom is just seven. Mr Grimes also had two children from another relationship.
Henshaw, a well-paid building site boss, admitted two counts of causing death by careless driving while intoxicated, driving without insurance and driving without a valid licence.
He was almost twice the limit when a blood test was taken four hours after the teatime crash, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Judge Bryan Forster said the driving was "shocking" and told Henshaw witnesses described the scene as "catastrophic". People who stopped to help were commended after the case, and the court heard one witness was psychologically scarred by what he saw.
It was the fourth time Henshaw had been caught drink-driving since the early 1990s. He had never held a full licence and lost the vision in his left eye in an accident when he was 19.
The judge said: "You have no regard for the motoring laws of this country. You have no regard for other citizens who could be put at risk by your behaviour."
On the evening of the fatal crash, Henshaw told police he drank three or four pints of lager in a pub in Teesside before setting off with his 66-year-old partner, from Cumbria, to the caravan site where he was staying while working in the area.
Tests found 143mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood - the legal limit is 80mg - when the father-of-three was tested four hours later.
Judge Forster banned Henshaw from driving for life.
Duncan McReadie, defending, said Henshaw showed genuine remorse but he conceded his client had 'normalised' drink-driving.
He said Henshaw knew the pain caused by a sudden death, following the loss of his wife of only a few months when she died in a balcony fall five years ago.
Henshaw was caught driving while disqualified twice in 1982, banned for drink-driving in 1991 when he was three times over the limit, banned again in 1999 for drink-driving when he was almost twice over the limit, and jailed for four months in 2002 after crashing while drunk and failing to stop.
He was banned for five years then, but was caught driving while disqualified in February 2003.
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