Ref. 20224-49THE girlfriend of a Swindon man, killed when a lorry hit an ambulance he was being treated in, has hit out after the truck driver had his jail term cut.

Clare Moreton, 30, said it was a travesty of justice that James Kelly, 54, should have had his sentence reduced from three and a half years to two at the Court of Appeal.

Kelly, who was thought by witnesses to have been sleeping at the wheel of his lorry, drove it into the back of a stationary ambulance at Junct-ion 18 of the M4 near Bristol.

In the back was 28-year-old Mark Jenkins, of Ferndale Road, who was being treated after suffering chest pains.

He was killed and the two ambulancemen badly injured. The accident happened in August of 2002, and Kelly, of Fairview Court in Ponty-pool, Gwent, was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court in February of this year after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.

But at the Court of Appeal in London yesterday, his sentence was cut.

Mr Justice Gage, sitting with Lord Justice Thomas and Judge Sir Richard Rougier, pointed out that Kelly had pleaded guilty and was deeply remorseful.

He ordered that a four-year driving ban should remain in force.

But Mark's girlfriend said: "This is a travesty. It makes a complete joke of Mark's life.

"For me, no sentence would be enough to make up for what I have lost." Miss Morton is still mourning Mark's death, and has stayed in close contact with his family.

She said: "I speak to his mother, Elizabeth, every week and we support each other.

"But losing someone so close is hard, and on some days impossible.

"It makes a mockery of justice.

"I cannot believe this man will walk away scot-free so soon.

"It's disgusting and leaves you feeling so powerless.

"I could shout and scream with rage but it won't change anything."

The court heard that the ambulance was spun around by the force of the collision, of which Kelly had no memory. It came to rest facing oncoming traffic, while the lorry also slewed around and shed its load, eventually overturning and ending up upside-down on the grass verge.

Eyewitnesses reported that the lorry had been weaving from side to side for up to 12 miles before the impact, and suggested that Kelly had been asleep at the wheel.

Kelly had originally pleaded not guilty to his offence, but changed that plea after two days of his Bristol Crown Court trial.

The judge at that trial, David Ticehurst, told him: "Clearly you should not have been driving, but you continued driving."

Barrie Hudson