A drink and drug driver who killed two children in a crash on the M4 will not have his sentence reviewed, the Attorney General has confirmed last week.

Martin Newman was jailed for nine years for causing the deaths of siblings Gracie Ann and Jayden Lee Lucas in a crash on the M4 in Newport on February 5 2022.

Jayden Lee, aged three, and sister Gracie Ann, aged four, from Tredegar, Blaenau Gwent, were travelling from a birthday party when the family’s car was hit by Newman’s van on 5 February.

Newman, 41, from Croeserw, Neath Port Talbot, was found to have been drinking red wine at the wheel, and also had cocaine in his system.

Following his sentencing in Cardiff Crown Court in April, the Lucas family called for Newman’s sentence to be reviewed by the court of appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentences scheme.

However this week it was confirmed that their request to review Newman’s prison term had been rejected by the Attorney General.

A spokesperson from the Attorney General’s Office said:

“The Solicitor General was shocked and deeply saddened by this case, and wishes to extend his sympathies to the family of Gracie-Ann and Jayden-Lee Lucas.”

“After careful consideration the Solicitor General has concluded that this case cannot properly be referred to the Court of Appeal. A referral under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence. The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met in this case.”