A Dalry man left devastated by his wife’s death says he is “insulted” by the sentence handed to the driver guilty of causing the fatal crash.

Walter Shearer, 80, was driving home with his partner of over 50 years, Jean Shearer, when a van struck them on the A737 near Dalry.

Behind the wheel was 26-year-old Andrew McKinley, who was sentenced to five years in jail for causing Jean’s death by dangerous driving on Thursday, February 27.

Mr Shearer said: “I want it really hammered home, that you should lose so much, suffer so much, while he’s sitting getting his breakfast, dinner and tea. Getting his milk delivered along with his paper.”

On December 31, 2017, Mr Shearer and his wife were returning home to Dalry having done their weekly shop at Morrisons.

He said the last thing he recalls is driving down the clear road in his smart car and noticing the queue of traffic heading in the opposite direction.

The next thing he remembers is waking up in hospital roughly two weeks later and finding out Jean had been killed.

Mr Shearer said: “He killed my wife and badly injured myself.

“I’m left with a permanent limp, life changing injuries.”

The pensioner said he had damage to his lungs, broken ribs, a break in his shin, and had to have a pin put in his femur and foot, along with a cafe in his right elbow.

He said: “I just found the sentence to be totally inadequate for the damage he’s done.

“Because of an idiot, I’ve lost my wife and my family has lost their mother, which is scandalous.”

Jean who married Walter at 18, also left behind two daughters and two grandchildren.

The couple met in Glasgow before moving to Dalry in the 1970s to give the family a better life.

Mr Shearer believes that the sentence is an insult and that it is unjust.

He wishes he could appeal and said that victims have no rights in Scotland compared to places like the United States.

He said: “It’s not a level playing field. I feel victims should have a say.

“I’ll fight it as much as I can, through the political scene.”

When you compare the length of McKinley’s punishment with the damage he has caused, Mr Shearer said, it is the victims who have been given a life sentence.

He told the Herald: “I’m reliving the consequences daily.

“The crash, could I have done something, could I not, I don’t know.

“I look at his record and shake my head.”

McKinley was previously convicted in December 2013 of careless driving and in February 2014 for dangerous driving and banned for two years.

Mr Shearer said: “When he was found guilty, they cuffed him to take him down to the cells.

“I was sitting in the front row, he was bubbling and crying, and saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’.

“I could have hit him.”

Judge Johanna Johnson banned McKinley from

driving for seven years and told him: “You were aware of those conditions and you engaged in a course of

dangerous driving through Dalry and overtook the car and drove at an extensive speed.

“Your actions have devastated a whole family and there is no sentence this court could ever impose that would reduce in any way the grief and loss felt by the Shearer family.”

Mr Shearer wrote to MSP, Kenneth Gibson, to ask for help to give victim’s a right to appeal.

Mr Gibson responded: “The prosecution can appeal against a sentence but only where it is regarded as ‘unduly lenient’.

“A sentence is ‘unduly lenient’ if it falls outside the normal range of sentences the judge could have considered.

“The prosecution can’t challenge a sentence just because they think it’s not severe enough.”