A bereaved daughter who lost both her parents in a fatal crash on the A1(M) has opened up about the moment she came face-to-face with the man who killed her loved ones.
Marie Johnson's mum and dad, David Daglish, 57, and Elaine Sullivan, 59, from Seaham, died in a horror crash on July 15, 2021, near Bowburn, County Durham, after lorry driver Ion Nicu Onut failed to stop in time for stationary traffic.
At the time of the crash, the HGV driver was travelling at 58mph; killing David, Elaine, and Paul Mullen, 51, of Washington, who was in another car on the stretch of the A1(M).
Several people were also injured in the crash, on the northbound carriageway near junction 61, and one of the lorries caught fire.
Forensic examinations of his mobile phone found that Onut, of Galashiels, in Scotland, had been repeatedly using the device’s web browser throughout his journey from Cambridgeshire right up until the time of the collision.
In January 2022, Onut was jailed for eight years and ten months and disqualified from driving for more than 14 years at Durham Crown Court.
More than two and a half years on from the start of Onut's jail sentence, Durham Police's victim care and advice service facilitated a meeting between Marie and the man who killed her parents on the A1(M).
Releasing a video of what Marie said in the aftermath of that meeting, Durham Police has documented the impact these meetings can have on the families of victims and those who are behind bars in connection with their deaths.
Speaking in the video, Marie said: “You can cry as much as you want in a documentary, but is that genuine? Until you see and hear it for yourself, you can’t pass judgement.”
“In my head I wanted him to be a monster,” she said, “but he wasn’t. He was just a normal man.
“It was like having a conversation with a friend about what we’d been through. I never gave it thought that this man was the man who killed my parents.
"I felt as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulder - that I met him. I forgave him, and I chose not to hate him, simply because if you carry hate with you, it weighs you down."
The video, which also features the horrific aftermath scenes of the fatal crash, shows the emergency services trying to deal with the people and vehicles involved.
Marie added: "I wanted him to know the destruction he left behind. I wanted him to know they had claimed the lives of my parents - they weren't just a name in the paper.
"I couldn't bring my mum and dad back - but they would have wanted me to forgive him.
"I shouldn't have wanted to make him feel better - but didn't want him to carry this burden with him.
"He's going to have to live with that, and close his eyes at night and see those horrors."
The video, which is part of a bigger documentary, also went on to hear from Onut, and the impact that it has had on his life.
Speaking behind bars, he says: "I have to live with this for the rest of my life.
“I never had a chance to apologise, to say sorry for what I had done to those who lost their loved ones, the people who were injured, the ones who suffer from flashbacks.
“By being on my phone for a long period and then realising the traffic ahead of me had stopped, I had absolutely zero chance to act and pull my brakes on.
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“It shows you how quickly it happens, and how quickly your life changes from being normal to now being in prison, having a sentence of eight years.
"I have never been involved in anything with the police before, and then for using your mobile phone at the wheel you are here, away from the real world and friends and family.
“When I saw the videos of what happened it was unimaginable and hard to see. It was so disturbing knowing that was me in that lorry ploughing through the cars.”
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