It was just after midnight when Rebekah Dowell’s phone rang. It was her 14-year-old sister, Chloe, with panic in her voice, saying their mum Maria Smith and her partner Richard Lewis-Clements still weren’t home.

They had popped out in the car at 8.30pm to pick up something for dinner for her and their other sister Lucy, 18, and still hadn’t returned.

Chloe, Rebekah, Maria, Lucy

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A sense of dread pervaded Rebekah, 24, but it took an agonising two hours before her fears were confirmed by the police.

Both Maria, 48, and Richard, 46, were dead. They were killed instantly when their silver ­VW Polo was smashed into by a black SEAT Leon driven by Jodan Hunt at a junction near their home in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

Hunt, a 24-year-old builder, had been at a wedding reception at a hotel less than a mile away, and was 16 times over the drug-drive limit .

But rather than calling 999 for help, Hunt, unscathed, abandoned his car and fled the scene on foot, returning to the wedding. He was still at the nuptials when policetracked him down and arrested him.

He was jailed on September 1 after admitting two counts of causing death bydangerous driving . Justice should have provided some comfort for the devastated three sisters, but Hunt was sentenced to six years, which has left them devastated.

The maximum penalty for death by dangerous driving under the influence of drugs is 14 years.

“As a family, we’re very angry,” says Rebekah, speaking for the first time since her mother’s death.

“It’s essentially three years for each life he took away. How does that adequately reflect how dramatically this has changed our lives?

“We’ve had ­everything taken away. Mum was like a best friend to my sisters Chloe, Lucy, and I. We were all so close – like a little unit – so it’s a huge blow to lose that.”

Rebekah, an events coordinator, still lived just 10 minutes away from her mum, and would regularly pop in for cups of tea and catch-ups.

Recalling the night of the crash, she says: “When Chloe rang me around midnight to say they still weren’t home I could hear she was panicking. I told her to stay calm.”

Her mind raced with possible ­explanations for where her mum and the man she regarded as her stepdad could be.

She continues: “Then, at 2am, Chloe called again to say the police were there, which must have been terrifying for her and Lucy.

“I was told the police were bringing them to mine, but I wanted to know before they came what had happened, so I could prepare myself.

“That’s when I was told there’d been a hit-and-run car crash and that neither mum nor Richard had survived. In that moment, my whole world came crashing down. I just had this feeling that nothing would ever be the same again.

“Once the girls arrived at mine, we sat up together all night, trying to make sense of what had happened. It was surreal – that’s the only word I can use to describe it.”

It took just two-and-a-half hours after the crash for Hunt, a father of two, to be tracked down to the wedding reception and taken into custody.

Living in a small town, over the following days information was pieced together through word of mouth and local gossip.

“A lot of people around were talking about the crash,” says Rebekah.

“I remember when the police first told us they’d arrested a 24-year-old male and my heart just sank.

“Eastbourne is a small place, so it was very likely I’d know him.

“Sadly, I do. Though I’ve never met Jodan, I know of him and I have to say, I’m not surprised he’d do something like this.”

For Richard and Maria’s families, another devastating blow soon followed when they learned that Hunt had been 16 times over the legal drug- driving limit when he got behind the wheel.

enzoylecgonine, the major metabolite of cocaine , was detected coursing through his system.

Tests after the crash found 800mcg of the substance per litre in his blood. The limit is 50mcg.

“In my mind, there’s not a huge line between what he did and manslaughter,” says Rebekah.

“He knew the risks and got behind the wheel anyway, with absolutely no regard for anybody else. A car is a weapon at the end of the day.”

Guildford Crown Court heard how dad-of-two Hunt had sped through a pedestrian crossing on the wrong side of the road, before weaving through anti-terror barriers, which had been erected ahead of the resort’s annual Airbourne airshow.

He’d then clipped the kerb and skidded into the path of Richard and Maria’s car, causing unthinkable carnage and brutally ending their lives.

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