‘He has taken a life but not once has he offered an apology’: Drink-driving victim’s grieving partner welcomes guilty verdict

THE grieving partner of an island vet who died in a crash caused by a drink-driver has opened up about the emotional turmoil caused by her killer’s lies.

Much-loved Theresa Wade, 29, died when Thomas Wainwright’s high-powered Maserati ploughed into her van on the Isle of Mull on October 28, 2015.

Wainwright had downed whisky and cider during an eight-hour drinking binge on the island with his mother’s partner Jerome Lopez and sneered to bar staff “the car knows its own way home” before taking to the wheel.

Shortly after, Wainwright’s hired Italian sports car was clocked doing 95mph and was on the wrong side of the road when it hit Theresa’s van on the A849 near Craignure.

The force of the impact was so great, the van’s engine was forced into the cabin.

Wainwright refused to give a breath sample at the scene or at the police station and then callously tried to blacken Theresa’s name by claiming she had been on the wrong side of the road when the crash happened.

But a jury at the High Court in Glasgow did not believe his lies and unanimously found 27-year-old Wainwright guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

He will be sentenced on Friday.

Charles Pease, Theresa’s partner for more than 10 years, told The Sunday Post of his anguish over her death and his disgust over Wainwright’s lies.

“He has taken the life of someone who I loved beyond all measure,” he said. “Never once in the 17 months since Theresa died has Wainwright offered an apology or even expressed the smallest token of regret at what he had done.

“Instead he besmirched her memory with the foulest of accusations and put us through this court case.”

Wainwright, who worked as first officer on a £6 million yacht in the south of France, had a previous conviction for driving while unfit through drink or drugs. At a court in Nice he had been fined 700 euros and given a suspended sentence.

Witnesses from Mull told during the trial how Wainwright had been out drinking in Tobermory and Craignure with Lopez.

Charles added: “I don’t have a message for him, if he needs one it should come from his own conscience. I just want to remove him from memory, he’s an infinitely small person of pitiful insignificance.”

High-achieving Theresa grew up in the village of Bunessan, Mull, the oldest daughter of Trevor and Mary Wade and sister to Rosie and Louise. Her love of animals was apparent from an early age and her dream was to become the island’s vet.

As a weekly boarder at Oban High School, she was the dux in her final year and was accepted for a place at Glasgow University’s veterinary school, where she graduated with honours.

While studying, she had spent her summers gaining as much experience as she could at the island’s vet practice, which had been run by father and son team Robert and Jimmy Wilson for 50 years.

A job in Fort William followed before a chance encounter with Jimmy led to an offer to take over the Mull practice herself at the age of 27. She spent a year working alongside her mentor Jimmy before he retired and her dream of being her home island’s sole vet was realised.

Although the actions of Wainwright snatched that dream away from Theresa, Charles and Jimmy have kept the practice running by using locums.

It has been difficult, particularly as Charles’s daily journey to and from the practice from the home he shared with Theresa 20 miles away in Kinloch takes him past where the accident happened.

“My role now is just to preserve whatever I can of someone I loved so much,” said Charles. “Even in her absence, I can still come here and feel close to her.

“Her name is still on the door. I can’t be a vet but we will do the next best thing and run this for her. Until we are able to find a vet who is capable of taking over this practice, we will keep her dream alive.

“Theresa would have expected no less.”

Among the many things Charles and Theresa shared together was a strong Christian faith and a love of Mull.

They planned to marry and start a family once things had settled down with the new vet practice and they had even picked out an engagement ring.

Although Wainwright’s reckless actions were the main factor in Theresa’s tragic death, Charles believes others who didn’t stop him from getting behind the wheel or alert the police are also culpable.

“Her death should lead many people to search their conscience,” he said.

“I understand some places refused them drink on the night. Others will have to live with Theresa’s death too.

“If I had been given the choice it would have been me in that accident, I would not have hesitated. She had so much to offer.

“You still hope that she might walk through the door and say it was all a big mistake, a bad dream. But it won’t happen, so I must live with it.”