AN EX-SERVICEMAN who blamed a "booze culture" in the RAF for his drink problem was yesterday jailed for six years for causing a friend's death in a car crash.
Ross McIntyre, 26, was almost three times the alcohol limit when his car left the road and hit a tree. He suffered a broken neck and his passenger, Ross Watson, 19, sustained fatal injuries.
The accident happened on 7 January last year near Bi
ggar, Lanarkshire, after the pair got lost after leaving a party.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard that McIntyre, of Livingston, who is now a lorry driver, had an alcohol addiction which his counsel, Louise Arrol, said dated to his time in the RAF.
She said: "Part of the culture there was that he would drink at weekends and drink substantial amounts of alcohol. This was something he continued to do after leaving the RAF. He recognised it was causing problems four years ago and sought the assistance of Alcoholics Anonymous. He succumbed to alcohol on eight or nine occasions.
"Unfortunately, January 2007 was one of these occasions."
A jury convicted McIntyre of causing the death of Mr Watson, also of Livingston, by dangerous driving and driving under the influence of alcohol. He was driving his father's car, a BMW, and lost control at a junction of the A72 and A702 roads. The vehicle mounted an embankment before hitting a tree with such force that it was embedded in the trunk. McIntyre's alcohol count was 221mg in 100ml of blood, the legal limit being 80mg in 100ml.
He told the police he could not remember the crash. He said he and Mr Watson had been at a party, and when it ended, his friend had asked if there was anywhere else they could go. On the spur of the moment, they decided to visit someone in Innerleithen, near Peebles. McIntyre got lost. He thought the road went straight on, but he saw the junction and panicked.
Ms Arrol said McIntyre had not intended to drink that night, and took the car to the party. He made a "massive error of judgment" in getting behind the wheel after he had taken alcohol and he had expressed genuine remorse.
Lord Wheatley told McIntyre that cases such as his were always a "dreadful tragedy" for everyone concerned.
But he added: "I have to proceed on the basis that you needlessly caused the death of another person by driving with nearly three times the legal level of alcohol in your system. A custodial sentence of some considerable length will have to be imposed."
McIntyre was also banned from driving for seven years and ordered to re-sit the driving test.
The full article contains 458 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
