London - The father of two boys who were killed by a drug-fuelled driver in a hit-and-run was found dead in a Greek hotel room yesterday.
Reece Platt-May, 30, died less than three weeks after career criminal Robert Brown was jailed for nine years over the deaths of his sons Corey, six, and two-year-old Casper.
Mr Platt-May, director of a freight transport firm, had spoken in court to give a victim impact statement on behalf of his wife Louise, 28, who had been crossing the road with their children when the boys were hit.
She described being haunted by their ‘lifeless faces on the road’.
It is believed Mr Platt-May had been on holiday in Corfu with his wife and their surviving children, Connor, nine, and Cooper, four, who also witnessed the fatal collision as they headed to a park during half-term on February 22.
Brown, 53, had been driving at more than 60mph when he hit Corey and Casper as they crossed the 30mph-limit road. Corey was thrown into the air by the impact and landed some distance away.
After the crash, Brown’s ex-fiancee Gwen Harrison, 42, who had also been in the car, attacked a witness. The pair were later found by police hiding behind a nearby garden shed.
West Midlands Police said that there were no suspicious circumstances in Mr Platt-May’s death in Corfu in the early hours yesterday.
Umang Patel, 56, who owns a convenience store opposite the family home in the Stoke area of Coventry, said Brown and Harrison had ‘taken another life’. He added: ‘Those two scumbags have destroyed a family. I am absolutely shocked. He [Mr Platt-May] would come in every day with his kids after school and buy them one or two sweets.
‘He was so chatty and open before the tragedy. He still came into the shop afterwards but he was more withdrawn.’
Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: ‘If it is suicide, it is more blood on the hands of those two.’
Brown, who was high on cocaine at the time of the crash, was jailed for death by dangerous driving, as well as driving while disqualified and without insurance or a licence at Warwick Crown Court.
Following the hearing, Mr Platt-May’s mother Carolyn branded the sentence a ‘joke’. It has since been referred to the Attorney General for consideration of whether it was unduly lenient.
Yesterday the bereaved mother posted a picture of herself with Mr Platt-May on her Facebook page, captioned: ‘Me an [sic] my rock.’
The father had shown his anger over Brown’s sentence on Twitter the day after the April 27 hearing.
In a message to Theresa May’s account, he wrote: ‘Justice for my 2 dead boys would be a life sentence for the animal who ploughed through them, surely you can do something?!’
Harrison, who also tested positive for cocaine, admitted assault with intent to resist arrest. She was jailed for six months.
Brown, who had 57 convictions for 209 offences, was released from prison on licence – after being jailed for possessing a machete – only six days before the crash.