Heartbreaking Moment: New Mum Welcomes Baby Boy, Then Faces Tragedy of Identifying Parents’ Bodies

A woman has described having to identify her parents’ bodies, just hours after she gave birth.

Emma Johnson received the news that her parents, Ian and Gail Gale, had been killed in a car crash just before she was due to give birth. Only eight hours after her son, Jacob, was born, Emma identified her parents in the hospital morgue. In a tragic twist, she had been estranged from her father for many years.

Last month at Leicester Crown Court, Simarjeet Singh, 35, was found guilty of causing the deaths of Gail Gale, 58, and Ian Gale, 64, by careless driving, two counts of causing death by driving while uninsured and two counts of causing death while driving without a licence. On Friday, he was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and disqualified from driving for four years. He must also sit an extended retest when re-applying for his licence

Mum-of-four Emma, 34, from Leicester, says: “It was a whirlwind 24 hours; I was euphoric from the birth, and then shell-shocked seeing my parents’ dead bodies. I hadn’t seen Mum because of the rift with my father. I had always hoped one day Mum and I would be close again, and now that will never happen.

“She will never meet her new grandson, and that breaks my heart. Singh was driving without a licence, and without insurance and he is a danger to all drivers. He should be locked up for a long time.” Emma was an only child and has happy memories of her mother.

She says: “We enjoyed watching the soaps together, we’d bake cakes and crochet. She worked full time as a civil servant.” After having her eldest child in 2011, and supported by her husband, Dale, Emma broke off contact with her father. Emma says: “I always hoped one day Mum and I would be close again.”

In November 2022, Emma was admitted to hospital to be induced with her fourth child. She says: “I was kept in hospital, because of complications. But on November 20, the doctor said I could go home for the day. I was really looking forward to seeing my husband and children, but when I got home, Dale broke the news that both of my parents had been killed in a crash.

Their bodies were in the same hospital as me; they were in the morgue and I was on the maternity ward, and I’d had no idea. I was shell-shocked. The police wanted me to identify the bodies but the doctors were worried about the stress on my baby and wanted me to give birth first.

“I had to be transferred to a different hospital, because of a bed shortage, and induced.” Emma gave birth to a son, Jacob, on November 22 at 430am. She says: “He was classed as a shock birth, and he had some congestion and was very quiet. I worried the trauma had affected him, but he made a good recovery.”

Eight hours on, leaving her son in hospital, Emma identified her parents’ bodies in the morgue. She says: “I spent a long time with Mum, holding her hand, telling her about her new grandson. It was heartbreaking. Her death didn’t hit me for weeks, it took me so long to accept she was gone.”

In November the court heard Singh had swerved into the path of oncoming traffic and crashed head on with the Hyundai being driven by Gail.

Emma says: “I was very nervous about the court case and I was so glad he was found guilty. There is never justification to drive without a licence and insurance and because of his selfish actions I will never rebuild that closeness with my mother, and she will never meet her grandson.”