The RAF pilot who killed a family of four after deliberately driving the wrong way down a motorway has been pictured.
Richard Woods, 40, drove in the fast lane of a the M6 near Tebay, Cumbria for almost a minute on October 15 last year.
Several drivers managed to swerve and avoid him but Jaroslaw Rossa, who did attempt to steer clear of Wood’s Skoda, struckhim head on.
Mr Rossa, his partner Jade McEnroe, 33, and Mr Rossa’s sons Filip, 15, and Dominic, seven, all from Glasgow, died in the crash, along with Mr Woods.
Ms McEnroe’s seven-year-old son, Arran, survived after a workman jumped out of his van and used a jack to smash the rear windscreen of Mr Rossa’s Toyota Yaris and pulled him out from the burning vehicle.
At an inquest into the deaths, Cumbria coroner Margaret Taylor said she found that ‘Jaroslaw, Jade, Filip and Dominic died as a consequence of the unlawful acts of another driver’.
Detective sergeant Deborah Story, of Cumbria Police’s serious road collision investigation unit, said Woods would have been prosecuted on four counts of manslaughter had he lived.
The family had been on their way back from a trip to Legoland in Windsor, Berkshire, when the crash happened between junction 38 and 39 at 4.05pm.
Mr Woods, from Cambridgeshire, was nearly four times over the legal drink-drive limit and a two-thirds empty bottle of gin was discovered in his car.
He had initially been seen going in the correct direction in the north bound carriageway, but drifting ‘erratically’ between lanes and into the hard shoulder, with one driver saying she was ‘terrified’ as he repeatedly braked harshly in front of trucks.
Mr Woods then pulled into the hard shoulder and in a ‘controlled manoeuvre’ from a stationary position completed a U-turn into the fast lane and a began driving in the wrong direction.
DS Story said Mr Woods went from ‘putting himself’ against larger vehicles where only he would be likely to be harmed to ‘putting himself’ against smaller vehicles in which the ‘likelihood of harm to other people is significantly high’.
The officer went on: ‘My assessment of all of the evidence was that Mr Woods deliberately caused the collision.
‘Had Mr Woods survived, regardless of any injuries, I would have sought four charges of manslaughter.’
She said hypothetical charges of murder were considered by detectives but not thought appropriate because of a lack of information that Mr Woods knew the family or anything that provided a link between them.
Miss McEnroe’s parents, Marie McEnroe and George McNellis, told the coroner they thought it was murder.
Ms McEnroe said: ‘It was definitely murder. That’s the only word.’
Mr McNellis added: ‘He definitely murdered my daughter.’
In a statement to the inquest, workman Gavin Walsh said he was a passenger in a Transit van on his way to Scotland and was behind the Mr Rossa’s car at the time of the collision.
He said he noticed a blue car travelling ‘extremely fast’ and heading towards the Yaris which he said ‘had no time’ to avoid the oncoming vehicle.
Mr Walsh jumped out of the van towards the front of the Yaris which was ‘already engulfed in flames’.
He said: ‘I could hear screams coming from the car.
‘I used a jack to smash the rear windscreen and I saw a little boy in the back seat who appeared to be stuck but possibly alive.
‘I was able to pull him from his seat and took him away from the car.
‘The boy was conscious and breathing. We spoke about football and what school he went to, I was just trying to keep him awake.
‘We really did try, I can assure everyone we did our best. We only had minimal time.
‘I saved a life that day and I hope never to witness anything like that again.
‘God bless you Arran, I have never stopped thinking about you. I hope we will meet again one day and I will give you a massive hug.’
A statement from the mother of Filip and Dominic and the ex-wife of Mr Rossa, Kamila, was read out at the inquest in her presence.
She said Mr Rossa, known as Jarek, was born in Poland where they became a couple and went on to have three boys.
He loved playing computer games and had ‘lots of friend’, she said, and worked at the Wagamama restaurant in Silverburn, Glasgow.
She said she last saw her sons when they left for their father’s house on October 10 for a holiday break and was sent photographs of them by Mr Rossa at Legoland on October 14.
She said she was ‘devastated’ at the deaths and added: ‘Our lives will never be the same.
‘I am heartbroken at the passing of my beloved angels Filip and Dominic.’
Filip was ‘very intelligent’, ‘very sensitive’ and ‘full of love’ and had an ambition to study chemistry at Glasgow University, she said.
She added that Dominic was ‘caring’, ‘always smiling’, loved Pokemon and dinosaurs and was ‘interested in many things in the world around him’.
Ms McEnroe said her daughter, a spa therapist, had been in a relationship with Mr Rossa for about two-and-a-half years.
She said Miss McEnroe was a ‘brilliant mother’ to her only child, was ‘really happy’ with Mr Rossa and it was ‘lovely chaos’ when all the boys were playing together.
Ms McEnroe told the inquest that ‘life changed forever that day’.
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She went on: “I miss Jade every single day. I want to know why? Why them?
‘Arran keeps us going every single day.’
Last week at a separate inquest Ms Taylor concluded that Mr Woods’s death was suicide.
Numerous searches on the subject of suicide were found on his mobile phone, the court was told.
On Thursday, Ms Taylor said the Skoda driver had ‘totally disregarded the safety’ of other drivers on the M6 on October 15.
Mr Rossa died from multiple injuries, Miss McEnroe died from smoke inhalation and trauma, Filip died of smoke inhalation, possible burns and trauma, while Dominic died of trauma.
Mr Woods, originally from Hexham, Northumbria, was a flight lieutenant and then squadron leader during his 14-year RAF career as a fast jet pilot, reports the MailOnline.
He toured Afghanistan twice, completed three tours of Iraq – receiving a commendation for one – before leaving the RAF in 2019.
He later worked for BAE Systems, based at RAF Marham in Norfolk, as a lead contractor instructor pilot.
The inquest heard he had a history of anxiety and drinking issues, for which he received professional help.
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