A WIDOW whose husband was killed in a head-on crash with a police car says the officer involved should have been jailed.

PC Gareth Coomber was yesterday fined £3,500 after being found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

His patrol car ploughed into a Vauxhall Calibra being driven by Samantha Channell while her husband John, 34, slept in the passenger seat.

Coomber, who was travelling at 60mph, was on the wrong side of the B2415 between Chichester and Selsey while answering an emergency call in February 1998.

Mrs Channell, from Selsey, said the guilty verdict was "justice for John", but added Coomber should have been sent to prison.

She added: "I am delighted with the verdict. It would have been nice to see him go to prison, but that is not up to me."

Mrs Channell, who clutched her mother's hand and smiled when the verdict was read out, added: "I am just glad it is all over. It has been absolutely horrendous sitting in that courtroom for a week, but I have had my family with me. They've been tremendous."

The widow called on Sussex Police to sack Coomber, who is based at Wittering police station.

She said: "He shouldn't be a policeman now, not after what he did. I am going to make sure he's not."

Mrs Channell still walks with a limp because of injuries sustained in the crash in which her husband, a financial adviser and part-time fireman, was killed.

She attended his funeral in a wheelchair and added: "I still have physiotherapy twice a week. I was lucky not to lose my arms and legs."

Mrs Channell also revealed she and her husband had been planning to start a family.

She said: "It saddens me very much we didn't have children. We had talked about it and were going to start a family."

Mr Channell was regarded as one of the unsung heroes of the tornado which ripped through Selsey just weeks before his death.

The part-time firefighter

spent hours helping to make buildings safe and salvaging property from damaged homes and shops.

After he had signed off duty he opened his home as an emergency claims centre for clients from his day job as a representative for the Co-op Insurance Group.

The freak 100mph tornado in January 1998 damaged more than 1,200 homes and shops in the seaside town, sparking a major emergency.

Town Clerk Fred Robertson said: "He was one of life's gentlemen and he will be seriously missed."

Aspokesman for the Co-op Insurance Group said: "John was an exemplary agent, well respected by his customers, and he will be greatly missed by everyone."

Coomber will face Sussex Chief Constable Paul Whitehouse at a disciplinary hearing.

Chief Insp Stuart Harrison, operations manager for Sussex Police western division, said: "It needs to be left to the Chief Constable. The full force of the law has been applied to this case."

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