Drug driver who killed woman after losing control of car during jealous rage jailed

A drug driver has been jailed after killing his passenger when he lost control of his vehicle during a jealous rage.

Terry Lee Majors drove at rapid speeds on the A27 at Pevensey in July 2021 when his Ford Fiesta veered off the road into trees.

His passenger Cheryl Brookes, aged 35, from Bexhill, died as a result of the crash.

Majors appeared before Lewes Crown Court and has been jailed for causing death by dangerous driving over the incident in July 2021.

The court was told how Majors and Ms Brookes, a mother-of-two and a grandmother, had gone for a night away in Brighton.

He lost his temper after he saw another man look at her Instagram.

Majors, from St Leonards, drove them back to East Sussex and was heard abusing her as she made a mobile phone call to relatives.

She said: “He’s driving like a lunatic. He is doing 100mph and is scaring me.”

In text messages to a friend, she described how Majors had become “jealous” and “paranoid” before he left Brighton in a rage.

Majors, 40, appeared to try and attempt to overtake a vehicle, lost control, and crashed into trees on the A27 Pevensey bypass near the Hankham Hall Road bridge over the carriageway.

Tragically, Ms Brookes was declared deceased at the scene.

In statements at the time, her family said Cheryl was a “kind-hearted, caring and loving person, always there for people and always putting others before herself.”

Witnesses described Majors' erratic and dangerous driving between leaving the hotel and the collision. It included overtaking and undertaking other vehicles at high speed.

He was injured and taken to hospital, where a blood test showed he was over the limit for cannabis.

At Lewes Crown Court on April 19 he admitted causing death by dangerous driving.

Majors, of Marina, St Leonards, was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison and was disqualified from driving for five and a half years.

In a victim statement, Cheryl’s brother William Brookes, 38, of Eastbourne, thanked the emergency services who responded to the incident.

He said: “Cheryl was the life and soul of every party, she was the glue that held us all together.

"Her children are devastated and her grandchildren will grow up without knowing their grandmother."

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