A mum had to tell her kids their dad was "never coming back" after he left the house just 45 minutes before.
When Rachel Roper opened her front door on New Year's Day in 2022 – her world fell apart. She was told by officers her husband had died and found herself telling her kids their dad was "never coming back" just minutes later.
Having left the house just 45 minutes before, Gareth Roper, a dad of six, was the victim of a hit-and-run driver. Gareth was mowed down by Jamie Evans after being left by police three miles from his home, MEN reports.
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Police had earlier visited Gareth's home and had taken him away after his wife reported him "acting somewhat strangely". He was de-arrested nine minutes later and left barefoot outside the Iceland store in Platt Bridge, Wigan, without money or a mobile phone.
The 35-year-old was hit by a speeding car and suffered severe head injuries. He died at the scene after being struck by a 2013 Volvo V60 at 55mpm on Lily Lane, a 30mph zone in Bamfurlong.
Jamie Evans was behind the wheel. He was seen 40 minutes earlier on CCTV opening a can of Stella from a petrol station before swigging from a spirits bottle. He hit Mr Roper, then drove off.
The 30-year-old, of no fixed address, who was driving on an expired provisional licence, was jailed for nine years at Bolton Crown Court on Tuesday (September 26). He had previously pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.
Heartbreaking victim impact statements were read on behalf of Mr Roper's family at the sentencing hearing.
'It didn't seem real'
Wife Mrs Roper said: "Nobody ever expects that the police will come to your door and tell you that your husband has been killed in a hit and run. I still remember that moment they told me and will always remember it.
"It didn't seem real what we were being told. He was only taken away from the house about 45 minutes earlier and now I was being told that he was dead."
The officers who left him remain under investigation. Mrs Roper Rachel said she still remembers her children's "screams and cries" after she told them their dad "was never coming back". They were "shouting for their daddy", she said.
Her "thriving kids", turned into "shells of people", she wrote, adding: "We were a happy family, but since that night all of that has changed.
She told Evans: "[You have] ruined a happy family, with a hardworking dad, who worked every hour to provide for his children. [You have] taken all that away from them and for no reason."
Mrs Roper said she couldn't forgive Evans, who she said had shown no remorse. "When I found out he was local to the area I felt sick," she said. "Why didn't he stop?"
"Never once has he apologised for his actions, instead he has spent the last 18 months denying he was in the wrong, blaming others. "Somehow, he even goes on my Facebook and screenshots my posts and sends them to friends of mine. He just doesn't care."
'Bragging and laughing'
Mr Roper's brother Barry Hatton told the court in a statement he too had been made aware of Evans posting photographs on Facebook showing him partying. Mr Hatton said Evans had been "bragging and laughing" about going "on holiday" to Forest Bank prison.
Mr Hatton described the heartache of seeing the pain etched on the faces of his nephew and nieces. An emotional statement by Mr Roper's mother Joyce King was then read to the court.
She said: "Within a split second your actions shattered our lives forever. We wake up in the morning wishing it not to be true that our Gareth is gone, go to bed each night hoping to dream about him just to see him again.
"Playing voicemails and videos of him over and over again just to hear his voice and his laugh again. You didn't just take our Gareth from us, you took us from him, you robbed him of the chance to see all his children grow up.
"The way you just left him in the road, like he was nothing, will forever haunt us, and he might not have meant anything to you, but Gareth was and still is our everything."
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