The wives of two cyclist mowed down by a company director on his way home from work have revealed the scale of their devastating loss - as the driver responsible yesterday walked free from court.
Andy Coles, 56, and Damien Natale, 52, were struck and killed as they cycled on the A40 in Oxfordshire on June 1 last year.
Yesterday, the driver, Clifford Rennie, 61, left court having been given a suspended sentence, a driving ban and a £475 fine. He had earlier admitted two counts of careless driving.
The sentence was handed down after the court had heard statements from the partners of the two cyclists, one of whom described the situation as 'beyond a tragedy'.
Mr Coles' partner, Helen Atherton, said June 1, 2020, was a date seared in her memory as 'beyond tragedy, beyond awful, beyond anything I can imagine'.
'I lost my world,' she said in her statement.
Mr Natale's wife and childhood sweetheart, Tracey, said she felt like she was serving a 'life sentence'.
Clifford Rennie, pictured outside High Wycombe Magistrates' Court in Buckinghamshire, killed two cyclists while driving home from his office but he has walked free from court
Andy Coles (left), 56, and Damien Natale (right), 52, were struck by Rennie as he drove from his office in High Wycombe on the A40 between Studley Green and Piddington in Oxfordshire
The court heard how Mr Coles and Mr Natale were struck by Rennie's vehicle as he drove it from his office in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
Driving in his Volkswagen Golf and travelling in the same direction, Rennie collided with Mr Natale and Mr Coles from behind.
Mr Coles, 56, was thrown over the crash barrier and down the hill, with his shattered bicycle found wedged in a tree.
Mr Natale, 52, was sent into the opposite carriageway and found over 50 metres from where the crash happened.
Both men, who had been cycling behind one another close to the side of the road, were killed instantly, Oxford Crow Court heard.
Another driver saw Rennie's 2019-plate VW Golf hit the two cyclists on the crest of the hill.
He said Rennie, who stopped at the scene, had been holding his head in his hands and saying ''there's two of them.'
The evening had been sunny and, although overhanging trees had created patches of sunlight and shade on the road, a police
