Clayton Williams convicted of PC Dave Phillips's manslaughter
A car thief has been found guilty of the manslaughter of a policeman by running him over in a stolen pick-up truck during a chase.
Clayton Williams, 19, struck PC Dave Phillips, 34, after a high-speed police pursuit in Merseyside in October.
He was crouched on the kerb deploying a stinger device when Williams mounted the central reservation and hit him.
Williams was cleared of murder but ordered to serve 20 years, initially, in a young offenders institution.
He was also banned from driving for life.
The police officer's widow, Jen Phillips, cried as she read out her victim impact statement and said to Williams: "I want you to know what you've done to me and my daughters.
"Tears flow as I cry myself to sleep every night. It's soul destroying.
"I have to be strong for the sake of my children, how do I do that, when the children cry for their daddy."
She said she can't sleep at night and when she does "she dreams of her husband alive".
Several jurors at Manchester Crown Court were in tears as she finished her statement.
Hannah Whieldon, PC Phillips's sister, said in a statement to the court: "Life is now joyless. Every time I laugh, my heart lurches at the unfairness of it all.
Evade capture
"I will never be the same again. I don't know how to be normal again now.
"He was a good man, a brave man, the best brother, he'd never let you down.
"Williams killed him, broke his body until his heart ruptured and took away his soul.
"While we grieved Clayton Williams grinned like an idiot."
She said her daughter had said she also wanted to die "so she can be with her uncle".
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Sentencing, the judge said: "I regard this as a very grave offence of manslaughter, you were on licence at the time.
"Any remorse is false. As that poor policeman was fighting for his life, you were covering it up."
The judge recognised Williams did not deliberately attempt to cause serious harm, but did deliberately drive the car at PC Phillips.
The Wallasey teenager, who was out on licence from jail after crashing into a lamppost in another police pursuit, told the jury he had no intention of hitting the officer and only saw him seconds before impact.
PC Phillips was attempting to stop the three-ton Mitsubishi vehicle using a tyre-puncturing "stop stick" or "stinger" device to end a high-speed police pursuit.
Fellow officers tried to save PC Phillips's life but he died shortly after arriving at hospital.
Cannabis-addict Williams, who said he had been using the drug since the age of six, admitted his dangerous driving caused PC Phillips's death, but maintained he did not intend to injure anyone and only wanted to evade capture and not go back to jail.
Williams told the jury that he was trying to drive around the stinger spikes and did not see PC Phillips until the second before impact.
He was found not guilty of attempting to wound another police officer on Friday.
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