A lorry driver who killed a man by smashing into a stationary vehicle while watching pornography on his mobile phone has been jailed for eight years.

Felix Gillon, 56, had looked up "porn star candy love" just four minutes before the collision which caused the death of Kerry Pemberton.

Mr Pemberton, 55, had broken down between junctions 1 and 2 on the M69 when Gillon's HGV ploughed into his Scania vehicle on the hard shoulder on May 3 last year.

The married father-of-five from Birmingham had survived the initial impact but was trapped under the wreckage and against a safety barrier.

He was eventually freed by firefighters but died of a heart attack in the ambulance on the way to hospital.

Witnesses to the incident saw Gillon drift in and out of the hard shoulder between two and four times on the M69 southbound carriageway at around 3.13pm.

He had accessed some 25 webpages while driving including pornographic images and galleries while behind the wheel of his Iveco lorry.

After the collision, Gillon was spotted by an off-duty officer throwing his phone away into fields on the hard shoulder.

He had taken the SIM card out and discarded it separately but an examination of the scene recovered it.

An analysis of the SIM found Gillon was also sending and receiving text messages while he was driving.

The former Army sergeant, of Johnson Road, Bedworth, had denied one count of causing death by dangerous driving and one count of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

But he was found guilty of both charges on Thursday and sentenced to eight years at Leicester Crown Court. He was also disqualified from driving for eight years.

Sentencing him, the Right Honourable Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said he had "carefully, deliberately and surreptitiously" disposed of his phone after the incident.

"You told a series of lies to seek to cover your tracks but the jury saw through it all," he added.

In a victim impact statement read by prosecutor James Bide-Thomas, Mr Pemberton's wife, Cheryl, said: "His death has been the truly hardest time for all of us."

Detective Constable Seamus Burns of Leicestershire Police said: "Not only did Gillon blatantly disregard the law he attempted to cover his tracks by getting rid of evidence.

"His actions that day, no doubt, resulted in the death of an innocent man."

Janine Smith, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "This tragic collision was caused by Felix Gillon driving into Mr Pemberton's stationary vehicle because he had allowed himself to be distracted by his phone.

"I would like to express my sincere sympathies to Mr Pemberton's family and friends."