The families of two pilots killed by a dangerous lorry driver have described as “appalling” the months of uncertainty they endured while fearing he could see his jail term reduced to ease pressure on overcrowded prisons.
Relatives of Ryanair pilots Matthew Greenhalgh and Jamie Fernandes said they were furious that ministers moved to exclude killers from the early release scheme only after a public backlash — and that they learned of the change through media reports rather than official contact.
In June, both families received letters warning that 63-year-old Anthony Burns could have his sentence “recalculated” as part of government efforts to free up prison spaces, despite the fact he had been jailed for 10 years only five months earlier.
The Prime Minister’s reversal, which now excludes prisoners convicted of manslaughter and causing death by dangerous driving from early release, came after national outrage over revelations that the killers of PC Andrew Harper — who died after being dragged for more than a mile behind a getaway vehicle — could also have benefited.
Hannah Greenhalgh, who married her husband in Las Vegas just three months before his death in July 2024, said: “When I was informed by letter in June and again earlier this month that Burns could be considered for early release, I was devastated. It reopened wounds that I’ve tried to heal for the past two years.”
She said that while she was ‘relieved’ to hear killer drivers will now be exempt from early release, she has still had no direct confirmation from justice officials.
‘Victims shouldn’t have to read through headlines to be informed about changes that impact them,’ she said.
‘Victims like me have a lifelong sentence of grief and voices of bereaved families should be heard from the beginning, not after months of fear and uncertainty.’
Ryanair pilots (left) Captain Matthew Greenhalgh, 28, and First Officer Jamie Fernandes, 24
Mr Fernandes’ mother Amanda Lindsay said bereaved families had been put through ‘needless uncertainty’ before the Prime Minister’s announcement and called their treatment ‘appalling’.
She said: ‘We were told there were no alternatives to prevent prison overcrowding – now they’ve found a workable one which they should have done in the first place.
‘The fact that we were subjected to the uncertainty for all these weeks and that the government had planned to let those offenders be released early in the first place beggars belief.
‘I heard several politicians claiming they had considered every other alternative and they had no choice. It is lazy governance. Only after a national outcry did they manage to find alternative solutions.
‘The Prime Minister talked about reform of the justice system in the years to come. We can only hope that we eventually have a system that is victim focussed, delivers genuine and fair justice for victims and their families, and changes to ensure true deterrents to committing crime.’
Captain Greenhalgh, 28, and First Officer Fernandes, 24, were in a taxi in queuing traffic when Burns ploughed his 44-tonne lorry into the back of their vehicle at 50mph –braking only a second before impact.
The pilots’ families already felt the original punishment was too lenient – with Burns likely to be released after half his jail time.
Mrs Greenhalgh, now 29, added: ‘I feel failed by a system that I put trust in at the most traumatic and vulnerable time of my life.
‘When a judge listens to all of the evidence, hears from everyone involved and passes sentence, I believe that sentence means what it says.’
She said the spectre Burns could have his sentence left her ‘carrying further pain and anguish all over again’.
Hannah and Matthew Greenhalgh on their wedding day in Las Vegas months before tragedy
Ms Lindsay said that receiving a letter informing her and husband Peter Fernandes that Burns could be considered under the early release scheme was the latest of a ‘never ending roll of gut punches’.
Burns, of Upton, Wirral, pleaded guilty to two charges of causing death by dangerous driving and one count of causing serious injury by dangerous driving to taxi driver Rashid Mehmood in the crash at 5.30am on the M62 at Burtonwood, Cheshire, in July 2024.
The lorry driver, who had 28 previous convictions, was driving at 56mph, ignoring a 40mph advisory speed limit due to heavy rain. He did not react for 19 seconds after he should have seen the traffic jam ahead – with the pilots’ taxi at the rear.
Mr Greenhalgh and Mr Fernandes were being driven back to their base at Liverpool Airport having transported an empty plane to Luton hours earlier.
Father-of-one Mr Mehmood, who suffered broken ribs and a broken shoulder but managed to crawl from the wreckage, told Burns’ sentencing hearing how he has ‘not driven a taxi since’.
Burns, jailed at Liverpool Crown Court in January, has also been given leave to challenge his sentence in the Court of Appeal.
His past crimes ranged from joyriding and motoring offences in his youth to arson in 1993 and common assault in 2009, with sentences including youth detention and suspended jail terms.
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said Burns’ history meant he ‘shouldn’t have’ ever become a commercial driver.
Jamie Fernandes with parents Peter Fernandes, left, and Amanda Lindsay, right, after he flew them to Paris in November 2023
The prisons crisis comes despite 350 cells at a new £400m jail lying empty because insufficient staff can be recruited. Meanwhile, 1,800 cells are empty because of fire risks.
The Ministry of Justice said the Prime Minister asked for a plan on how to revise the early release scheme by early September to ‘keep more of the most dangerous offenders behind bars’ and that it ‘inherited a prison system on the brink of collapse.
‘What was the point of going through the court process?’
When Hannah Greenhalgh married her high- flying pilot husband in an intimate Las Vegas ceremony, she couldn’t have imagined she would lose him only months later in the most horrendous circumstances.
Then, even after the killer driver responsible was jailed, she had her agony compounded by politicians’ dithering about whether he might be released early to free up prison spaces.
Hannah was left questioning the point of going through the court process to see Burns jailed.
In a victim impact statement, she told how she ‘struggled to see a future after everything was taken from me’.
Informed Burns’ 10-year sentence could have been ‘recalculated’, mental health nurse Hannah said: ‘What was the point in me talking about the impact and exposing my vulnerabilities? This man took Matt away, everything was destroyed.
‘The victim impact statement is still something that upsets me quite a lot. I had to stand there and talk about the impact of what happened. I engaged in that process because it was for me to be empowered.
Matt and Hannah Greenhalgh at the Christmas market in Wroclaw, Poland, in December 2023
‘I stood in court, read it, looked the driver in the eye but what was the point of doing that?’
Hannah said that as a victim, she has had to ‘fight for information to navigate this process thinking it would end in January of 2026’ only to be ‘in the dark again’ while waiting to hear if the sentence would be reviewed.
She added that Burns’ unconnected decision to appeal against the sentence, having ‘never said sorry’ or even provided an explanation for the crash, ‘shows there hasn’t been any remorse’.
Hannah said she went from planning her future to planning Matt’s funeral and learning ‘about this whole justice system that I would otherwise never have a reason to know about’.
She said: ‘I had no guidance. It was like being dropped off in the dark, with a bag but no map, no phone signal. Now I feel like that again. I wasn’t told that this could happen.
‘I’m tired of fighting but I have to keep fighting. It’s not just me – there’s been other people who have lost children or partners.
‘Death by dangerous driving is not seen as murder or like killing someone in any other way, even though it is.
‘Anthony Burns thinks the sentence is excessive. Was killing two people and injuring the taxi driver not excessive?
Killer lorry driver Anthony Burns, 63, will now now have his sentence ‘recalculated’ – but has launched a separate appeal against 10-year jail term
‘I can’t imagine how he feels (the taxi driver). He was just doing his job, he went to work. His life will never be the same.’
Hannah said her current mood contrasts with the relief she felt after a preliminary hearing before Warrington Magistrates’ Court where Burns gave an indication of guilty pleas in November.
She said: ‘I felt quite emotional. I saw a little robin outside and I remember feeling that relief – knowing I have my grief but I don’t have the legal process hanging over me.’
Hannah had already been through the agony of not even being able to identify her husband because he was too severely injured and it took a change of funeral director before she was able to visit him and hold his hand prior to the funeral.
To help her cope, she also asked police if she could see the damaged taxi – and came face to face with Burns’ enormous truck.
Hannah said: ‘I realised then, I understood he could never come home. The lorry was 44 tonnes. A bullet weighs 10 grammes.’
The horrendous tragedy was a far cry from the joy of Hannah and Matt’s wedding day at a Las Vegas chapel in April 2024.
Hannah said: ‘We planned to have a normal wedding, booked for September, but we also wanted to have an intimate ceremony, just us.’
Hannah and Matt on a 2022 trip to New York, where she is running a marathon in November
Hannah and Matt booked a second ceremony to be held with family back in Britain.
The couple had been planning their wedding since Matt proposed on a beach in the Bahamas while on a cruise in 2022.
Hannah, originally from Manchester, told how she met Matt in 2018 when she was a student at Edge Hill University and working at the Jack Wills clothing store in the Trafford Centre.
Matt was working at the shop, too, between completing pilot training and starting with Ryanair.
Describing their relationship, she said: ‘We were like best friends. He was so easy going but he had his head switched on.
‘He brought the best out of me. I feel he made the most of every opportunity.’
Hannah described Matt as ‘really grounded’ and ‘really modest’ despite his high-flying career which saw him promoted to captain after five years aged just 27.
Hannah’s parents were also very fond of Matt. Her mother, Lynn Powell, said: ‘He was funny as well. Because of his work, he couldn’t really drink.
Newly-unveiled plaque to both pilots near crash site with Bolt of Lightning memorial behind
‘We once sent a picture of us saying, look what you are missing. He sent back a picture with Hannah, a cup of tea and a biscuit, saying “I’ve got all I need right here”.’
The couple, who had planned to have a family after tying the knot, set up home in Liverpool so Matt could be close to the airport and Hannah to her work, initially at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. She was later promoted to lead practitioner in an adolescent crisis team.
The tragic death of her husband led to her taking time off then moving into working in the community with children and schools.
Hannah, the middle of three sisters, coped with bereavement by taking up long-distance running, including a half marathon for charity Widowed and Young last October.
She ran a full marathon at Chorlton Water Park, Manchester, on June 13, which would have been Matt’s 30th birthday, with a picture of him on her running vest.
Her next challenge will be the New York Marathon on November 1, a city where she has happy memories of holidays with Matt.
Two weeks ago, Hannah attended the unveiling of a memorial plaque to both Matt and Jamie – who worked together a couple of times a month – in a small garden close to the crash site and the Bolt of Lightning, a sculpture of a fighter jet in memory of airmen from the former Burtonwood RAF base nearby.
Meanwhile, Ryanair has an award named after Matt and Jamie which is handed to the best pilot cadet in each year group.
Floral tribute left by Hannah in memory of her husband beside the memorial plaque
Hannah said: ‘I don’t want Matt to be a statistic, I don’t want him to be remembered by what happened to him.’
She is currently working on a campaign to improve help offered to bereaved families whose loved ones have been the victims of killer drivers, and has participated in focus groups run by road safety charity Brake.
She said: ‘I’m hoping I can change things, from the lack of trauma information to providing help for people to navigate through the legal system. You have to wait six months for grief support and there’s nothing that bridges that gap.’
‘The justice system works for the benefit of the criminal’
First Officer Jamie Fernandes’ mother said the treatment of both pilots’ families has been ‘a litany of injustices, one after another’, adding: ‘The justice system in this country works for the benefit of the criminal.’
Amanda Lindsay said Jamie – her only child – was ‘simply a gift and an inspiration’, adding: ‘He was incredibly thoughtful, kind and he held his family and friends close.
‘Jamie loved his career choice and went to work with a smile each day. His mantra was “The sun always shines above the clouds.”
‘We were totally unprepared to be caught in a system that is so clearly not victim focussed.
‘For Burns to have been allowed as much leniency as we have witnessed has caused trauma after trauma and this has a cumulative effect on top of ongoing grief.’
Senior First Officer Jamie Fernandes pictured on his last birthday before he was killed
Ms Lindsay said the injustices began when Burns applied successfully to have his bail conditions removed to get his passport back.
Then there was the shortness of Burns’ sentence. ‘We thought it was far too lenient but the CPS and barrister said it was within the guidelines,’ she recalled.
‘We weren’t to know then that he’d be allowed to appeal and that politicians were planning to potentially allow him and thousands of others an even earlier release.’
After Burns’ sentencing in January, Ms Lindsay and her husband went to see their local MP, Lindsay Hoyle, who wrote to the CPS on their behalf, seeking answers about why they would not push for a longer sentence.
She said: ‘The CPS came back with what I would call a non-answer, justifying their position.’
Mr Hoyle said he would raise the case with the then Justice Secretary David Lammy and the family were offered a meeting but Ms Lindsay said they declined, believing it would make no difference.
She said: ‘It is difficult to know how much more of this we can endure and the truth is we can’t really endure much more. Jamie was our world and he deserves justice.’
In stark contrast, Ms Lindsay highlighted the ‘on-going kindness, love and support we have been shown by family, friends and the aviation community’, describing it as ‘overwhelming and testament to what special young men Jamie and Matt were’.
Money raised in memory of the two pilots was used to buy an apartment for trainees
As well as the bench at Liverpool Airport in Jamie and Matt’s memory, and the Ryanair’s award scheme for the most outstanding pilot cadet, Ms Lindsay highlighted how one of their colleagues set up a Go Fund Me page to help with funeral expenses.
She said: ‘We would never have asked anyone for money. However, our thoughts quickly turned into deep gratitude when we saw how much had been donated and thought of the good that could be done with it. Ryanair and Liverpool Airport also contributed.’
The Jamie and Matt Legacy Fund was used to buy an apartment in Cork with AFTA, one of the flight training organisations which taught Jamie, providing accommodation for two cadets in each training intake.
Jamie, who first wanted to fly aeroplanes aged just seven, had ambitions to become a long-haul pilot and was part-way through the interview process with British Airways when he died.
In her statement to Liverpool Crown Court, Ms Lindsay said: ‘Our lives can never be fixed. What tortures us more than anything is how much we’re missing him and if he’s up there missing us, too.’
Families’ raft of concerns about how cases are handled
Matt’s and Jamie’s families highlighted a string of concerns about how their case was handled.
These included Burns being allowed to have bail conditions – which simply involved reporting to a police station once a week and surrendering his passport – removed and being able to continue driving until conviction.
They are also angered that an automatic one-third discount to sentences for guilty pleas, which led to a potential 15-year term for Burns being reduced to 10 years, applies even to ‘slam dunk’ cases where evidence is overwhelming.
Separately, the families argue the practice of giving concurrent sentences – through which jail terms for separate counts are served together – ‘actually incentivises criminals to commit more crimes’.
At sentencing, Burns’ barrister said he ‘went back to driving an HGV for a few days after the collision’ despite claiming to have no memory of the crash – which the families say shows he clearly had ‘no regard to the safety of other road users’.
The pilots’ families fear insurance may not have covered Burns for driving HGVs at that time.
The families also want to know why a defence psychiatric report claiming Burns had no memory of the collision went unchallenged by the prosecution – and why defence barristers can respond to the prosecution case but prosecutors cannot then contest points made by the defence.
Ms Lindsay said: ‘Burns had many previous convictions and therefore demonstrated that he is untrustworthy.’
The families added that while Burns’ barrister said in court that he was remorseful, his actions in failing to apologise or explain what happened, having bail conditions removed and now mounting a sentencing appeal ‘have demonstrated otherwise’.
