A father begged a social services not to let his nine-year-old son’s ‘dangerously’ unstable mother pick him up from school just hours before she killed him in a high speed car crash, as she was today jailed for causing his death by dangerous driving.
Zac Roe, from Andover, Hampshire, is said to have ‘looked scared’ when he was seen getting into a car with his mother, Barbara, who had a history of mental health issues.
The 39-year-old, who has been diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder and was sectioned because of the condition in 2022, was driving at more than 76mph as she overtook a white Ford van on the A354 Salisbury Road, at East Woodyates, north Dorset, on March 25 last year.
Her car collided head-on with a HGV cattle transporter seconds later, at around 5.20pm.
Roe, who had been exhibiting signs of mania, had tried to swerve into bushes at the very last moment, meaning the front passenger seat carrying her nine-year-old son took the brunt of the impact.
Zac – who was the only child of the couple – suffered catastrophic injuries and died instantly at the scene on the A358 near Blandford, Dorset. After being arrested, Roe tried to blame her son for making her drive fast.
The youngster’s devastated father, Josh Roe, said he felt ‘betrayed’ by the professional services who he had tried to warn about his wife’s dangerous behaviour.
He said his wife’s condition had returned in early 2024. She had been having an affair and had walked out the family home five days before the fatal crash.
Barbara Roe has been jailed after causing a high speed car crash that killed her nine-year-old son, Zac, in Dorset last March
After being arrested, Roe tried to blame her son for the fatal collision by making her drive fast
Zac Roe is said to have ‘looked scared’ when he was seen getting into a car with his mother, Barbara, who had a history of mental health issues
Mr Roe had contacted the police, child services and Zac’s school four days before the crash concerned about his estranged wife’s state and risk to their son.
On March 25, the day of the crash, Mr Roe had tried to speak to her psychiatrist but did not get a call back.
He said he was unable to insist the school stop her picking Zac up until he had the authority from social services. The school said they were unable to refuse her.
He said he was unable to focus at work on the day in question and was ‘feeling sick, hoping someone would call him back and say he could collect Zac from school.’
He said: ‘I feel so betrayed by the professional services who should have listened when I told them. You (Barbara) were a danger to yourself and others.’
He described the devastating impact losing his son has had on him.
He said: ‘My heart is broken beyond words, I miss him every second of every day. I am in unimaginable pain, he was my favourite person in the world. He was a popular, fearless, full of life little boy with a kind heart.
‘It feels like I have a hole in my heart, I’ve contemplated suicide many times, I feel like life is not worth living. Barbara has ruined my life.’
Zac suffered catastrophic injuries and died instantly at the scene on the A358 near Blandford
Zac was the only child of Barbara and Josh Roe, who had separated just weeks before
The youngster’s devastated father, Josh Roe, said he felt ‘betrayed’ by the professional services who he had tried to warn about his wife’s dangerous behaviour
Bournemouth Crown Court heard the 39-year-old, who had been exhibiting symptoms of mania, had been ‘racing’ against the van in a bid to pass it.
It is said she was driving at speeds in excess of 90mph along a stretch of dual carriageway just before the fatal accident last year.
The crash caused her Citroen DS9 hire car to become ‘airborne’, with the engine becoming detached by the force of the crash and landing ’30 yards’ from the vehicle. Such was the force of the collision that the lorry driver said he had heard an ‘almighty smack’.
Her driving had prompted witnesses David and Gay Sutton, who were in a Porsche that had been overtaken moments before the crash, to say out loud: ‘That is so irresponsible, that is an accident waiting to happen.’
The defendant, of Ludgershall, Wiltshire, was jailed for five years for causing death by dangerous driving and banned from driving for seven-and-a-half years.
Judge Robert Pawson said: ‘She will carry a life sentence, that burden of knowing for the rest of her life that it was her actions that caused the death of her son.’
He added: ‘There is clear evidence of a progressive deterioration and it affected her rationality although Mrs Roe suffered from a defect of reason, but she knew what she was doing and she knew what she was doing was wrong.’
Siobhan Linsley, prosecuting, told the court that the defendant and Zac’s father, Josh Roe, had recently ‘unexpectedly’ separated and he had become concerned about her mental state.
The fatal crash occurred after Roe attempted to overtake another vehicle on the A354 near East Woodyates in Blandford, Dorset
Roe’s defence told Bournemouth Crown Court: ‘Ms Roe has a life sentence, her sense of loss is possibly the greatest of all and the tragedy is that it is self-inflicted’
She said he had attempted to contact the authorities to express his concern about the condition of his wife, who had previously been sectioned in 2022, but no action was taken to prevent her from picking Zac up from school on the day of the fatal crash.
The judge said: ‘The significant victim who is left alive is his father, Josh Roe, who contacted the police, the school and children’s services in the days before the collision.
‘He tried to call Mrs Roe’s psychiatrist and that in itself is a clear indication of the decline in Mrs Roe’s state.’
The court heard that Christopher Roe, Zac’s paternal grandfather, had warned the defendant to drive carefully after she had boasted how powerful the Citroen car was that she had hired for the day.
She had also previously sent him a message saying that she had been stopped by a police car for speeding at 80mph in a 40mph zone – which the judge said showed an ‘element of glorification of speed’.
In his victim impact statement, grandfather Christopher said: ‘How could you as a mother put your son’s life in danger?’
The court also heard from Zac’s grandmother Lyn, who saw Roe and Zac shortly before the crash. She tragically said to her husband Christopher as they drove off ‘he looks so scared, we are never going to see him again’.
She said: ‘My last memory will haunt me forever. My mind forever is thinking how terrifying it must have been for this little boy to be driven in a car so recklessly.’
Her statement added: ‘You should be here now Zac, you were only nine, instead you were taken so cruelly by your mother. I wish there was a miracle that would bring you back.’
The judge also said that there had been ‘competitive driving’ between the defendant and the van driver in the moments before the crash, before he highlighted that the driver of the cattle truck was ‘utterly blameless’.
Charles Gabb, defending, said that Roe had been experiencing a ‘deteriorating mental state’ and added: ‘In that hyperactive state, without properly appreciating what she was doing and what was going on and not in a proper lucid state, this tragedy occurred.’
He added: ‘Ms Roe has a life sentence, her sense of loss is possibly the greatest of all and the tragedy is that it is self-inflicted.’
Mr Gabb continued: ‘None of us know what it is like to be inflicted by a mental illness.
‘One can only imagine how a mother must feel, this was her only child, and at the age of 39 this will be her last.
‘I hope the court can understand the true level of remorse she feels.’
Judge Robert Pawson said: ‘My impression was the white van knew the car wanted to pass, remained in the right lane for longer than necessary and was accelerating hard as if the van didn’t want the car to pass.
‘If ever there was a lesson to all drivers – if someone wants to overtake you, if someone is tailgating you, rise above it.
‘The lorry driver Christopher Mitchell was blameless. He was driving entirely appropriately and in fact is another victim in his own right.
‘Nothing this court can do can put the clock back, nothing will ease the grief.’
He added: ‘Mercifcully in an expert opinion, [Zac] knew nothing of what happened and he did not suffer,’ The Mirror reported.
The judge added: ‘I do not get the sense of remorse of someone in Mrs Roe’s position.
‘It may be the inability at this stage to fully take on board the awfulness of what she has done. It was her actions that caused the death of her son.’
