A truck driver continuously slammed his truck into his girlfriend’s living room while her kids were home, as shown on camera.
Before driving into her home in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, some 12 miles south of Glasgow, Derek Wellington informed his then-partner, Sara Cassidy, 33, he was going to park his lorry in her living room.
The startling moment the driver backed his Eddie Stobart lorry into the front of the home is captured on video and was shot from an upper window.
Before the enormous truck pulls out of the driveway, there is a tremendous collision, yelling, and cries of “oh my god!” and “call the cops!”
Prior to the September 6 incident, Wellington, an Ayrshire native, had been seeing the mom of two since earlier in 2021.
He was given a ten-year jail term yesterday.
Following 24 previous convictions, including some for violence and threatening behavior, the 34-year-old was sentenced to ten years in prison yesterday.
After headbutting and pinning Ms Cassidy against a wall in an Edinburgh hotel one month prior, the lorry driver received a bail order not to approach her again. She required medical treatment.
After she declined to see him, he yelled into the phone and threatened to crash into her house, according to testimony given before the High Court in Stirling.
According to prosecutor Lisa Gillespie, Wellington repeatedly called Ms. Cassidy and begged her to come see him while yelling, swearing, and using vulgar language.
Because the kids were at home, Ms. Cassidy stated that he was not permitted to come at any time. Nevertheless, she consented to meet him on a neighboring street when he insisted on coming over.
Around 11 o’clock at night, she saw him in his vehicle and fled in terror back to her home, where she heard heavy banging and the sound of breaking glass.
Wellington vowed to return to finish the job after repeatedly reversing his vehicle into her living room, incurring £425,000 in damage.
When Ms. Cassidy saw her house entirely “caved in” and reduced to a mound of debris, she lost it and started crying uncontrollably.
Seven houses had to be evacuated, and the next home was also totally damaged.
The two children of Miss Cassidy, ages 14 and 11, as well as a friend who was also there, managed to escape unharmed.
Allan Reddick, a 37-year-old neighbor, used a ladder to help the kids escape via an upstairs window just before the home fell.
They were “very disturbed,” he claimed.
The following day, the truck was dumped in a supermarket parking lot with Wellington’s wallet still inside, and he was subsequently taken into custody.
Wellington pled guilty to the charges earlier this month, which included endangering life culpably and recklessly. He was sentenced in court through video connection.
He also admitted to violating his release conditions, spitting on a police officer, assaulting Miss Cassidy in the Edinburgh incident, and statutory breach of peace.
Iain Paterson, a lawyer-advocate for the defense, said that Wellington was “remorseful” and truly thought no one was home at the time of the incident.
While Ms. Cassidy sat indifferently on the benches throughout the session, he said that if he could turn back the time, he would.
He said Wellington had worked as an HGV driver “for almost a decade” and that the incident could prevent him from ever doing so again.
According to Judge Lord Armstrong, Ms. Cassidy lost the home she had occupied for five years, along with its $25,000 worth of furnishings.
Damage and lost rental revenue resulted in a debt for Clyde Valley Housing Association of £475,000 in total.
