'Idiotic' paramedic downed 10 pints before killing 'doting' dad-of-five in crash

An 'idiotic' off-duty paramedic killed a cyclist while driving to a barbecue he wasn't invited to. Robert Woodruff had downed 10 pints of Guinness before getting behind the wheel of his SUV and ploughing into dad-of-five Richard Goodwin, a court heard.

Mr Goodwin, a much-loved property developer and former bank manager, suffered horrific injuries in the 'catastrophic' and 'devastating' incident on June 26 last year and died almost immediately at the scene. Woodruff, 36, had been desperate to get to a barbecue of a female paramedic and was in a 'monumental lapse of judgement' had constantly been checking his phone for messages as he drove.

Earlier that day, Woodruff had been drinking in three different pubs in Wirthernsea, Yorkshire, before heading home. Despite the pleas of his wife not to drive, he headed back out and walked around the corner to his red Nissan Juke - driving away at around 8.45pm.

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Mr Goodwin was cycling in the opposite direction shortly before Woodruff tailgated another car at about 80mph, Hull Live reports. Woodruff was, according to a witness, driving like an "idiot" before gradually creeping onto the wrong side of the road and hitting the cyclist on the A1033, in Ottringham, seemingly without braking.

There was a "loud bang" and Mr Goodwin was carried on the windscreen for about 70 metres. The Nissan continued onto a verge, became airborne, cleared a water culvert and careered along undergrowth and across a cycle path before ending up in the front garden of a nearby cottage. The body of Mr Goodwin was discovered in undergrowth.

"It was clear to those present and the police that there was no sign of life," said