A grieving husband has expressed his outrage over what he perceives as a lenient sentence given to a reckless roofer responsible for the tragic death of his wife during a high-speed police pursuit. The incident occurred while the couple was enjoying a round of golf.

Clinton Harrison shared his dismay after John McDonald received a 13-year and six-month prison sentence on Tuesday for the fatal incident that claimed the life of Suzanne Cherry. Harrison noted that McDonald could be released in less than eight years.

McDonald, aged 52, led police on a dangerous chase, reaching speeds of 70mph through residential areas. The chase lasted 12 minutes, during which McDonald mounted sidewalks and ignored traffic signals, ultimately attempting to evade capture by driving through the golf course where Mrs. Cherry, 62, was playing.

Harrison described his late wife as an “incredible woman” and a source of inspiration. He highlighted her adherence to rules, stating, “She never broke a rule in her life, did everything by the book.”

He spoke fondly of her adventurous spirit, noting that she was an advanced motorcyclist, a certified scuba diver, and an avid cyclist who regularly started her day at the gym at 6 a.m.

Harrison further shared that his wife was the driving force behind a business that employed 32 people, and he emphasized the profound void her passing has left in his life, calling her “his whole life.”

McDonald was jailed for 13-and-a-half years, with a concurrent sentence of 48 months for conspiracy to commit fraud.

The judge told him he would have to serve two-thirds in prison before being released on licence.

‘You killed a person and devastated many,’ Judge James Burbidge KC told John McDonald.

His sentence was reduced from 18 years for his two offences after his guilty pleas were taken into consideration, the court heard.

Asked about the sentence afterwards Mr Harrison said: ‘You don’t want to know what I think about it’.

He said of the man responsible and the two others in the van: ‘They will not enter my thoughts.

‘I have got no thoughts about them at all. I won’t give them any head space.’

He added: ‘Everybody loved her. She was an inspiration. All the young ladies wanted to be like Suzanne Cherry because of what she achieved in her life.

‘A company owner, advanced motorcyclist, cyclist, scuba diver, and anything else she could jump off or dive off.’

Jailing all three defendants, who looked down at the floor in the dock, Judge James Burbidge KC said: ‘Suzanne Cherry and her husband, two people who wholly abide by the law and had everything to look forward to together, were playing golf when you three, in pursuing your criminal ambitions to defraud elderly and vulnerable victims and having been spotted by police, sought to escape punishment.’

Addressing John McDonald, who wore jeans and a brown jacket in the dock, Judge Burbidge said: ‘You, John, drove the van onto that golf course, a public place, and drove into the unsuspecting Suzanne Cherry, such that she was killed from the terrible injuries your driving inflicted upon her.

‘You killed a person and devastated many.’

Judge Burbidge said one elderly victim believed she was paying them £70 for work after she saw them type in the numbers ’70’ in their portable card machine but they actually took £7,800 from her. 

In total four victims – aged 61, 79, 83 and 88 – were conned into paying for unnecessary roof works. 

The court was told that on the day of the crash the three men were following an elderly victim in their grey Nissan van to a cash machine so she could take out money when they were spotted by two police officers in a marked car. 

The officers gave chase after Delaney saw them and turned his head, raising their suspicions. For 12 minutes, the officers pursued the van being driven by McDonald.

In terrifying footage played to the court he can be seen crashing into cars, including one carrying an 11-month-old baby. 

Reaching speeds of up to 70mph, the chase through the streets of Birmingham saw multiple vehicles damaged by McDonald’s van as he weaved in and out of traffic, drove through red lights and over pavements and tried to ram the police car following him at least eight times.

After the collision with Mrs Cherry, all defendants fled the scene. 

John and Johnny McDonald were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter on April 16 at a Ford dealership in Worcester, trying to hire another van, when the elder McDonald said: ‘Someone died?’

Sentencing all three at Worcester Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge James Burbidge said the fraud was ‘despicable’.

He told how the trio had pressurised one woman aged 71 to have work done, telling her it would ’cause a lot of trouble’ for her neighbour if she didn’t.  

She did not have the money so agreed to go to the bank to withdraw the cash. 

The judge said: ‘You three decided to follow her to the bank in your van. There then followed the pursuit.’

He said McDonald was ‘driving recklessly and did not care what he was doing’. 

One witness described his driving as ‘absolutely outrageous’ and could not believe someone would drive a vehicle in such a manner. The judge said: ‘This court cannot improve on those descriptions.’

He said ‘oblivious’ to the chase was husband and wife Clinton Harrison and Suzanne Cherry who were ‘playing golf together which they no doubt hoped to do so for many years to come’. 

He told how after the crash, Mr Harrison saw McDonald step over Mrs Cherry’s body.  

‘But you did not stop John you sought to save your own skin by running off,’ he told him. 

Addressing Mrs Cherry’s family he said: ‘No sentence any court can pass can measure the value of a life so tragically taken … let alone someone who lived life so fully and was so central to those who loved her.

‘It is absolutely clear that Suzanne Cherry was the centrepoint of Clinton Harrison’s life …. and as her mother said the heartbeat of her family’. 

He said she was ‘taken when all had so much to look forward to with milestones in life left to happen’.

Turning to McDonald in the dock he said: ‘John in this court’s view its difficult to conceive a more dangerous episode of driving… it was wicked in the extreme.

‘It was a prolonged and persistent and deliberate course of dangerous driving at speed….driving to evade police and a deliberate decision to drive ignoring all laws.’

He said that driving onto a golf course was ‘absolutely bound to cause a risk where unsuspecting members of the public were likely to be’. 

The judge said he was ‘oblivious to the dangers you caused’ and was ‘prepared to injure others’. 

‘In my judgement you were not interested in the risk you might cause to others… Only the risk to yourself. 

‘Even if you did make some effort to avoid the collision it was too little and too late.’ 

The court heard McDonald has nine convictions for 14 previous offences including for burglary. 

Johnny McDonald, who has three sons, was jailed for 32 months. The judge said he was not a junior partner in the conspiracy and showed ‘eagerness and led at times’. 

Delaney was jailed for 28 months.  

Mark Gatley KC, in mitigation for John McDonald, said the defendant is suffering nightmares about what he has done and is in poor physical health.

He said: ‘He accepts full responsibility for his offending, for causing the untimely death of this much-loved woman, sister, mother and wife.

‘No one can really begin to comprehend the pain he has caused but it weighs very heavily upon him.

‘He is struck by nightmares on a regular, if not daily basis, and he knows taking this life will haunt him for the rest of his days.

‘He knows none of that will bring much comfort to the family but that is the reality.

‘John McDonald did everything he could to avoid the collision but it was not possible to do so.

‘He knows his actions were selfish, reckless and irresponsible and cannot understand why he acted this way.’

The incident was referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct because it involved a chase with police officers. 

It said it concluded its investigation, which looked at the actions and decisions of officers involved in the pursuit and whether they followed national and local police policy, procedure and training. 

It was completed in October but the IOPC said it would not publish its findings until all associated proceedings, including coronial, have been completed to avoid any potential prejudice. 

 Detective Inspector Lisa Holland, of Staffordshire Police’s Major Investigations Department, said: ‘Suzanne was enjoying playing golf with her husband when she was struck by the van driven by John McDonald. He knew that he had struck Suzanne, and rather than stop to help her, he chose to run away.

‘Our thoughts remain with Suzanne’s family and friends. I would like to thank Suzanne’s husband and her family for their support, strength, and bravery during this investigation especially during the court proceedings.’