A professional footballer has been jailed for causing the death of a cyclist in a car crash.

Mansfield Town forward Lucas Akins crashed into Adrian Daniel in his Mercedes G350 in Huddersfield on 17 March 2022, while taking his daughter to a piano lesson.

Leeds Crown Court heard that Mr Daniel, 33, suffered catastrophic head injuries and died 10 days later.

Akins, 36, played in Mansfield’s 0-0 draw with Wigan on 4 March, hours after pleading guilty at Leeds Crown Court to death by careless or inconsiderate driving.

The footballer has continued to play for Mansfield since the incident.

Judge Alex Menary said on Thursday that he had considered imposing a suspended sentence, but had concluded that only an immediate sentence of 14 months’ imprisonment was appropriate.

A spokesperson for Mansfield Town FC said it “acknowledges” the court’s decision and offered the club’s “sincere and deepest condolences to the family of Adrian Daniel at this difficult time”.

“The club is considering its position with regards to Lucas and will be making no further comment at this stage,” the spokesperson added.

‘Like hell’

Prosecuting, Carmel Pearson said it was a “difficult junction to emerge from” but that the defendant “did not stop at the give-way sign”.

Savanna Daniel, Mr Daniel’s wife, told the court it had been “like hell and a nightmare [she is] not waking up from”.

“There was no reason for Adrian to be killed that way,” she said, adding it was “too simple a collision to have taken a life”.

Mrs Daniel said she did not want Akins’s children growing up without their father as she did not want “any more lives to be destroyed from this”, but she criticised the defendant for failing to plead guilty at an earlier stage.

Tim Pole, representing Akins, said he was “fundamentally a decent, honest and hard-working individual”.

“I want to publicly apologise on his behalf,” he said.

Mr Pole added that Akins understood Mrs Daniel’s “frustration and anger” over the time it took him to plead guilty.

Handing down his sentence, the judge accepted that Akins’s remorse was genuine but by not admitting to the offence at an earlier stage, he had prolonged Mrs Daniel’s “heartache and grief”.

After the sentencing, Mrs Daniel said “three years of hell” had come to a close, in a statement via West Yorkshire Police.

She said Akins had made a “farce” of the justice system and that his failure to plead guilty sooner “makes a mockery of any remorse that Akins offers for his actions”.

Akins, who has played for Mansfield Town since 2022 and was previously with clubs including Huddersfield Town, Tranmere Rovers and Burton Albion, was also suspended from driving for 12 months.

Much of the UK will bask in warm, sunny conditions at the start of next week, with inland temperatures up to 10C higher than average, but it’s a mixed picture before then.

The first half of spring brought warmth and sunshine for many, but the last 10 days have been more changeable.

Some areas of Ireland, Northern Ireland, southwest Wales, and southwest England have seen much-needed rainfall, whereas parts of northern Britain have observed very little.

See the latest weather forecast where you are

Tyne and Wear in northeast England has recorded just 7% of its average April rainfall, whereas Cornwall in the southwest of the country has already seen 156%.

And the Milford Haven rain gauge in Wales has seen over twice its average April rainfall.

There’ll be more rain over the next few days, mainly in the West, but it looks like high pressure will settle things down from Sunday.

Temperatures will rise too, becoming widely above average on Monday and Tuesday.

Highs of 22C (72F) to 24C (75F) can be expected.

The highest temperature of the year so far is 24C (75F), seen at Northolt in northwest London on Saturday 12 April.

The settled conditions will bring plenty of sunshine, with UV levels expected to be around moderate.

Tree pollen levels will be high in the South, low to moderate in the North.

What happens from next Wednesday onwards is unclear.

A thundery breakdown is possible from the South, or wet and windy conditions may move in from the North West.

Other computer models suggest high pressure will hold on, with the fine weather continuing and potentially higher temperatures.

The last time that 25C (77C) was reached in April was during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

The highest temperature ever recorded in April was 29.4C (85F), seen at Camden Square in London on 16 April 1949.

All this means that it will be quite warm for the London Marathon, which will take place this Sunday.

Temperatures will be around 11-12C (52-54F) at the start, potentially peaking at a warm 22C (70F).

That’s a little off the highest temperature ever recorded for the race, which stands at 24.2C (76F) seen at St James’s Park in 2018.

But it will be a lot higher than the 12.6C (55F) seen last year.

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It’ll be dry for runners and spectators, with sunny spells and light winds.

Competitors in the Manchester Marathon on Sunday will face similar conditions to London’s runners; it should be dry with sunny spells. The temperature first thing will be around 9C (48F), but it’ll warm up with a high of about 19C (66F).

England’s schools are under fresh scrutiny after government data revealed a sizeable increase in both suspensions and permanent exclusions.

According to the Department for Education, almost 300,000 pupils were suspended during the spring term of 2023/24, an increase of 12% recorded in spring 2022/23.

Suspensions have nearly doubled since spring 2019, surging 93% from 153,465 back then.

Meanwhile, permanent exclusions were also higher and went from 3,039 to 3,107, a 2% rise.

At Lewis Hamilton’s charity Mission 44, chief executive Jason Arthur said: “We are continuing to see the number of children losing learning due to suspensions and exclusions grow year on year – especially for vulnerable learners who face disadvantage or discrimination.”

The reasons for both the suspensions and permanent exclusions were “persistent disruptive behaviour” but many voices from the education sector say the figures tell a deeper story about post‑pandemic pressures.

Mr Arthur said: “Persistent disruptive behaviour continues to be the most common reason – yet taking children out of the classroom often only addresses the symptom and not the underlying causes of poor behaviour.”

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Campaigners and unions have also reacted with concern. Head of the Association of School and College Leaders Pepe Di’Iasio warned: “Young people only have one chance at a good education … missing classroom time damages their future.”

He urged ministers to back “early intervention strategies” rather than rely on exclusions as a quick fix.

Paul Whiteman, from the National Association of Head Teachers, echoed the plea, highlighting how poverty, the cost of living crisis and lingering pandemic fallout were fuelling bad behaviour.

He stressed that schools “need funded, specialist help” to tackle the root causes.

Charity director Steve Haines said: “Over 295,000 suspensions is a stark warning: our schools aren’t set up to support all students. Disadvantaged youngsters are four times more likely to be suspended.”

The Education Minister Stephen Morgan acknowledged the “broken system,” vowing that the government’s “Plan for Change” will roll out mental‑health professionals in every school, boost SEND support and expand free breakfast clubs –measures he says will curb the “underlying causes of poor behaviour”.