Wembley man who ploughed his car into ex-lover’s home is jailed

Court hears 42-year-old wanted to go out in a ‘blaze of glory’

A jilted lover who planned to go out in a ‘blaze of glory’ when he smashed his car into his ex-lover’s sitting room at 80mph will be locked up for at least seven-and-a-half years.

Twice-married Edmund Bruton, 42, of Harrow Road, Wembley, drank a litre of anti-freeze before ploughing into the Berkshire home of Tara Lavery, 41, on February 26 this year.

Inner London Crown Court hear the jealous businessman believed Ms Lavery had found another man following the end of the relationship.

Ms Lavery and four children, who were in the house, escaped serious injury.

Bruton claimed he had only intended to kill himself and he had created a suicide device with a garden fork and screwdriver, but that was never found.

Bruton gave his own mitigation to the court following a dispute with his barrister, Maureen Baker QC, before he was sentenced.

He was convicted of criminal damage with intent to endanger life and dangerous driving and cleared of attempted murder.

Judge Lindsay Burn handed him an indeterminate sentence for the protection of the public, specifying he must serve a minimum of seven and a half years before he can apply for parole.

He told Bruton: ‘This on any view is a most disturbing and worrying case.

‘The jury heard you were at the end of a relationship with your then partner, she being the one who brought it to an end.

“There is evidence from your ex-partner did whatever she reasonably could to try and help you through the difficulties you were suffering.

“But you set about in a premeditated and meticulous manner, not only planning your own death, but also planning to very serious injury to the extent of endangering the life of her and these young children.”