Teenage soldier Jack Paolucci along with his fiancée Courtney Jennings were both killed in a car that was being driven by Bradley Clough and ploughed into a tree in October 2021.
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Jack’s parents Ben and Becky Paolucci said they had chatted to Clough at their son’s wake and “would have given him a hug” if he had admitted the truth.
Clough, 25, was sentenced for causing death by careless driving, with the judge saying it was “less than attractive” that he had lied to cops about being blinded by oncoming lights.
The Renault Clio Clough was driving was overloaded with seven people inside when the car smashed into a tree.
Both Jack and Courtney, also a serving soldier, were killed and two other passengers were injured.
Clough, a private in the Royal Fusiliers, was jailed earlier this month and now Jack’s parents, from Stockland Green, Erdington, Birmingham, have spoken in detail.
The couple said they just wanted Clough to show some remorse, adding they were still waiting to find out exactly how their son died more than two years on from the tragedy.
Yes we did invite him to the funeral but after that he showed his true coloursJack’s dad Ben Paolucci
They said they had been awoken at their home in the early hours of October 30, 2021 and told the horrifying news their son, a lance corporal with the 1st Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, had died.
Becky told Birmingham Live: “We had two policemen knock on our door, just after three in the morning.
“They told us Jack had died. We asked about Courtney as they were attached. One didn’t go anywhere without the other.
“They said Courtney had died too. You can’t grieve properly – we didn’t know what happened.
“We just wanted him (Clough) to show some sort of remorse. All we wanted was for him to just admit it.
“This is what’s been hard – just the lies. They tried to get him to be remorseful. He said he felt ‘shocked’.”
Ben said: “Originally we had sympathy for the driver. If Jack had been driving, we know how bad he would have felt.
“Yes we did invite him to the funeral but after that he showed his true colours.”
Clough had been driving his loaded car, including Jack, 19, and Courtney, 18, to a Halloween party at a club in Andover, Hampshire, on October 29, 2021.
But Clough lost control of the vehicle on a corner near their army barracks in Tidworth, Wiltshire.
The car skidded off the road and hit a tree shortly before 10pm.
A jury at Winchester Crown Court heard no-one sitting on the back seat was wearing a seatbelt and a screw in a tyre was causing a slow puncture.
Passengers Kallum Ryan and Jack Latus were seriously injured in the crash.
People have asked ‘should Bradley have gone to jail?’ If he had said ‘I’m an idiot, I’m so sorry it happened’, I would have given him a hug. But he didn’t afford us that.Ben Paolucci
After a week-long trial last December, Clough, from Bacup in Lancashire, was cleared of two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and another two of causing serious injury by dangerous driving following the crash.
He did though admit two counts of causing death by careless driving and was jailed for three years.
Ben and Becky said they knew very little about events before the trial started.
They said they were still to be told their son’s cause of death and were still waiting a full death certificate after more than two years.
But they added the hardest part had been the alleged failure of Clough and some of the other passengers to tell them truthfully what had happened.
After being told of their son’s death, Ben and Becky travelled to Wiltshire and were met by police in a hospital car park, where they said they were “told everything”.
They also said Courtney’s family had been told in a Tesco car park.
The parents said: “We wished it had been done somewhere else.”
But they claimed they only learned in court what injuries their son had suffered.
Becky said: “We weren’t told of what he had died of.
“His injuries were part of the accident analysis. We were given an interim death certificate but the cause of death was undisclosed. We heard in court it was head and chest injuries.”
By not having a full death certificate, Jack is still listed on the electoral roll and his parents still receive letters for him.
Becky said: “You can’t really grieve. You’ve got all these things you’re having to wait for before you can move on.
“As nurses, we know when he was pulled out of the car he had a pulse. But we don’t know what happened then.”
Ben and Becky said Clough’s brother Oliver was in the front passenger seat in the Clio.
Some of the group, including Jack and Courtney, had arranged to take a cab but changed their minds when it did not turn up.
Jack’s parents said they learned more details bit-by-bit at the five-day trial.
They said: “We knew nothing at all. We saw the CCTV just before we went into court.”
URGED TO SLOW DOWN
Jack Latus, who was also in the back of the car, had urged Clough to slow down, saying: “Brad, chill” shortly before the crash.
Passenger Andrew Hill told the court that an oncoming car had its lights on full beam and “blinded Clough as it came around the corner”.
But during the trial, Clough said: “I was mistaken. There was a bright light.”
CCTV evidence showed there were no other cars in the area at the time of the crash.
Ben and Becky added they were angered that Clough had posted photos of his new car within weeks of the accident, and another photo of him “flexing”, posing, just before the trial.
Ben added: “Bradley texted us just before the funeral. He said ‘I don’t know what to say’. We invited him and his brother to the funeral. He seemed genuine. I spent the whole wake of the funeral speaking to them.
“If that was the person who continued in the whole process I don’t think it would have gone to court. It was not what he did but how he reacted to it.
“We all grew up and drove cars and did things we shouldn’t have done. People have asked ‘should Bradley have gone to jail?’ If he had said ‘I’m an idiot, I’m so sorry it happened’, I would have given him a hug. But he didn’t afford us that.
“They were a very close-knit group – Jack, Jack Latus, Kallum Ryan. We have thousands of photos of them together with Courtney. Jack’s room was the main area they met. Most of the ones in their group have left the army now. We thought these were his friends.”
Along with his prison sentence, Clough was banned from driving for three-and-a-half years and will have to sit an extended driving test before being able to get behind the wheel again.
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