'Cops took my husband away – 45 mins later a knock at door tore my world apart'
A woman has shared her heartbreak after police took her husband away from their home - and 45 minutes later, officers knocked on her door to deliver some tragic news.
Gareth Roper, 35, was taken away from his home after his wife reported him "acting somewhat strangely", but nine minutes later he was reportedly de-arrested and left barefoot outside the Iceland store in Platt Bridge, Wigan, Greater Manchester, which is three miles from his home, without money or a mobile phone. Tragically, the dad-of-six 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, Wigan - in the early hours of New Year's Day 2022. Jamie Evans, who was behind the wheel, was seen 40 minutes earlier on CCTV opening a can of beer from a petrol station before swigging from a spirits bottle. After hitting Mr Roper, he drove off.
Jamie Evans was jailed for nine years at Bolton Crown Court on Tuesday (PA)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. He had previously pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.
At the sentencing hearing, heartbreaking victim impact statements were read on behalf of Mr Roper's family. His wife Rachel 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.
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"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 said she still remembers her children's "screams and cries" after she told them their dad "was never coming back". She added her "thriving kids" were "shouting for their daddy" and described how their family life has completely changed since her husband's death.
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 could not 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?"
Police at the scene of the crash on Lily Lane, Wigan, Greater Manchester (Men Media)"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."
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 "bagging and laughing" about going "on holiday" to Forest Bank prison, reports the Manchester Evening News.
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.
"Within a split second your actions shattered our lives forever," she told Evans. "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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