An Exmouth man has been jailed for nine years for causing the death of a mum-of-five, after driving while drunk. Kevin Stagg, 55, was found guilty of causing the death of Sue Dare, 43, by careless driving while twice over the legal drink-drive limit.

An Exmouth man found guilty of causing the death of mum-of-five Sue Dare, has been jailed for nine years.

Kevin Stagg, 55, formerly of Mountain Close, was sentenced at Exeter Crown Court on Friday, by Judge Graham Cottle.

Stagg was sentenced to nine years in prison and disqualified from driving for seven years.

Stagg was last week found guilty of causing the death of Susan Dare, 43, of Hawthorne Grove by careless driving from being over the legal drink-drive limit.

A jury found him not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

Convicted Stagg, who was found to be more than twice over the legal limit after the accident, denied causing Miss Dare’s death by driving into her -dragging her in front of his red Metro some 200 metres along Littleham Road, on July 6, 2008.

Her body was spotted beneath his car at the Clinton Arms pub car park, Littleham, where she had died from her injuries.

Judge Cottle said had Stagg stopped his car after noticing it was handling badly after he had collided with Paul Milton, one of Miss Dare’s friends who was with her on the night she died, he would have spotted the deceased as she walked home from the pub, and her life could have been spared.

He said: “In the circumstances of you not having done so, the deceased died in truly horrifying circumstances, as being effectively run over by your car.”

He said the length of time it took for the trial to come to court lay ‘fairly and squarely’ with Stagg as a result of him ‘absconding’ to Spain.

Read the full report in The Journal, out on Thursday March 3.