The partner of a pregnant mother killed along with her unborn child has spoken of his heartbreak after being told the dangerous driver responsible might be released early under plans to ease overcrowding in prisons.
Frankie Jules-Hough, 38, was travelling with her sons Tommy, then nine, and Rocky, then two; and nephew Tobias, then four, when her car was hit by Adil Iqbal, who lost control of his father’s BMW on the M66 through bury.
Iqbal, then 22, earlier filmed himself reaching speeds of 123mph before smashing into Frankie’s Skoda Fabia. She was on the hard shoulder with a puncture when Iqbal careered into her vehicle.
Click here to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter
Frankie was 17 weeks pregnant. She and partner Calvin Buckley planned to call the child Neeve. Tommy and Tobias suffered serious injuries. Rocky, who was in a child seat, was miraculously unharmed.
In July 2023, Iqbal was jailed for 12 years after he pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving; and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving at Minshull Street Crown Court. The sentence was lengthened to 15 years following an appeal.
It has now been revealed that Iqbal could be among thousands of criminals released early from prison.
Under changes to the Sentencing Act, around 6,000 offenders will be let out of prison in October after serving a third of their sentence, rather than half, in a bid to ease prison overcrowding.
The Ministry of Justice has defended the move, saying it will stop the risk of prisons ‘reaching capacity and collapsing’. Prisoners serving longer sentences of four years or more will be eligible for release at the halfway point of their term, rather than at two-thirds as had previously been the case.
Following confirmation criminals convicted of driving offences will not be exempt from the scheme, Frankie’s partner Calvin has spoken out. He said he received a letter in June saying Iqbal could be among those released early.
He told BBC Breakfast: “I’m quite shocked and disappointed really, with the news. I mean I got a letter in June saying that the offender of Frankie’s case may be up for early release, but I didn’t think that would happen.
“I did hope that people who caused death by dangerous driving, serious offences like that was excluded from it. And now I’m having to deal with the fact that he could be released, maybe, it would have been three years. Which is something that I wasn’t prepared for.
“It’s just heartbreaking to think that the government are not seeing it as serious and this is how it felt when we first appealed. That it’s not being given the acknowledgement that it is and how serious and the impact and how devastating that is.
“She had two sons at the time and yeah, our life was taken by children. It was all about family. We was expecting our first child together as well. Frankie was 17 weeks pregnant at the time she was killed.
“Our life was about our children, building a future together, and we’ve had that taken away. There’s no way I feel like any offender of that category, who has caused catastrophic injuries or death by dangerous, there’s no way they should be up for early release.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We have been clear that we wanted to go further and block more offenders from getting out sooner into their sentence, but could not do so without risking prisons reaching capacity and collapsing.
“If that happened, police could not make arrests, courts could not remand offenders and there would be unchecked criminality on our streets.
“We are pulling every lever to protect the public and cut crime, building prison places at the fastest rate since the Victorian era, launching the biggest ever expansion of tagging to toughen community punishment and increasing support to victims, giving them a say in the strict licence conditions of offenders.”
