Jose Carlos Baroca Figueira (31) had fallen asleep at the wheel after a heavy drinking session. He was also feeling the effects of a powerful sedative he had taken 12 hours earlier. Figueira drove at 31 mph into the gate of St Mary’s parish church in the early hours of Monday 13 November last year. His front seat passenger, Manuel de Sousa, was killed instantly. In the back, sitting on the floor among gardening tools, Agostinho da Silva broke his back. He is paralysed from the chest down. Crown Advocate Matthew Jowitt told the Royal Court that Figueira had been at least one and a half times over the legal drink-drive limit.
