Footballer in court over M6 deaths

10:18am Monday 6th October 2008

A professional footballer accused of causing the deaths of two young boys killed in a motorway crash is appearing in court.

Former Plymouth Argyle goalkeeper Luke McCormick is expected to enter pleas to the charges of causing the deaths of Arron Peak, 10, and his eight-year-old brother Ben, eight, by dangerous driving.

The 25-year-old, who will appear before Judge Paul Glenn at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court, is also charged with driving with excess alcohol.

The young brothers, from Partington, Manchester, were killed in a crash on the M6 in Staffordshire on June 7, as they made their way to the Silverstone racetrack for a day out.

The Toyota Previa people carrier in which they were travelling with their father and three friends was in collision with a black Range Rover shortly before 5.45am.

Their father, Phil Peak, 37, was at the wheel of the Toyota and was seriously injured in the crash.

Coventry-born McCormick is a former England youth international and was twice voted Argyle's young player of the season.

His contract with Plymouth Argyle was cancelled by "mutual consent" on July 22, according to the club.

A charge of driving without insurance was withdrawn at an earlier court appearance, when magistrates heard it was an "administrative error" that McCormick's insurance details were not on a national database, and that he had produced an insurance document which was accepted as genuine.

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