Widow shares her agony after losing ‘perfect’ husband in horror smash

It's a fact that the now 33-year-old Lisnaskea woman is still coming to terms with, almost a year and a half after the tragic death of her husband, Barry McManus.

Mr. McManus was killed instantly when the Volkswagen Golf driven by Vladimar Kovac struck his Renault Megane on the Belfast Road, Brookeborough in the early hours of June 11, 2022.

Kovac, from Carrowshee Park, Lisnaskea, was “intoxicated, driving aggressively, at high speed and with the accelerator fully depressed” at the time of the horrific impact.

Mr. McManus had been driving home from work to celebrate with his beloved wife on her birthday.

It was to be a happy day, a celebration of life, as most birthdays are. Now, it is a date that will be forever tinged with sadness as the anniversary of the day that she lost her best friend, the father of her children, the love of her life.

On Monday (November 6) at Dungannon Crown Court, Kovac was jailed for nine-and-a-half years, to be served half in custody, and half on licence, and disqualified from driving for 10 years.

Although the end of the trial has brought Mrs. McManus an element of closure, it does not bring her husband back.

"We live the life sentence of it," said Mrs. McManus, as we sat in the kitchen of her parent's house in Lisnaskea, where she and her children Ellie and Jack now live following Mr. McManus' death.

"We had to move back up here. I couldn't live in that house, knowing that Barry should be there. The garage door never opened, the front door was always a reminder of two policemen at it [who broke the news about Mr. McManus to her].

"He [Kovac] was always walking out that road all the time. I don't understand why he'd be walking out that road.

“He never came to my house to apologise. I just feel like he's ruined my life," she said.

Rachel McManus, leaving Dungannon Court with family and friends.

Mrs. McManus described the weeks before Mr. McManus' death as the "happiest times" of their lives.

"We'd had loads of problems, we'd lost a child and just different things, [but] we had finally got to the point where we were really happy.

"Jack came along. Barry didn't want to be the only boy [in the family], and he finally had his boy, and he was so happy," said Mrs. McManus.

On the morning before the crash, that Friday, June 10, she had driven Barry to Enniskillen to register Jack's birth. Their son was only three weeks old.

"Little did I know that the next day, Barry would be gone," she said, noting that June 11, the day that Mr. McManus died, was her birthday.

"He had changed his shift so that he was working the Friday night to finish at 1am, so he would be home on Saturday [morning] to bring me breakfast in bed.

"As always, he was going to treat me like a queen.

"He had a birthday meal planned for me and our two beautiful children. Our daughter, Ellie, had to get to Asda the [day before] to pick out a nice outfit.

"Instead, she wore it to her daddy’s funeral."

Mr. McManus and his daughter Ellie, who is now eight years old, were best friends.

"I can't explain how close they were," said Mrs. McManus, calling Mr. McManus "the best father to his princess for seven wonderful years".

She recalled how they would often go on daddy-daughter dates.

"They'd go to the park and play with Barbies, and with the new Barbie house that he had spent weeks in the garage building for her seventh birthday," she said.

"I know when people die, people say things like, 'He was such an amazing person', but Barry was the best father. He absolutely worshipped Ellie – there was nobody like Ellie.

"And the three weeks he had of Jack, he just idolised his children.

"All he wanted was just to see them grow up, and that was our plan: to just watch our kids grow up," said Mrs. McManus, her voice beginning to break.

"Barry has missed everything. He's missed Jack's first of everything, and he's going to miss everything.

Barry McManus.

"He's going to miss Ellie's firsts. She's started a new school, and she's so much happier. He's missed all that.

"And it's all because of him [Kovac]," she said, fighting back tears.

As we spoke, she went on to raise her concerns for the future, of when her daughter is old enough to understand what happened to her father, and starts asking her questions.

"I'm going to have to answer all of Jack's questions. It's absolutely heartbreaking.

"Jack [only] knew [his dad] for three weeks. He goes over to the picture on Barry's grave, and he kisses it and goes 'Da Da Da'.

"He should be here."

Night of the crash

The night of the road traffic collision, as Mrs. McManus put her son into his cot, she had a bad feeling.

"I got Ellie to bed and put Jack in the cot. Then I thought, ‘Something's not right’, so I put him in beside me.

"I couldn't get to sleep, which was really strange, because I was really tired," she said.

Not long after, Mrs. McManus heard a knocking at her front door.

"When I went up to the door, I could see the outline of two policemen and the blue lights.

"I opened the door and I had Jack in my arms, and the police were there. They asked if I was Mrs. McManus, and I said ‘Yes’. Then they asked if I was Barry's wife, and I said ‘Yes’. They asked if they could come in."

Mrs. McManus let them in, but only through the front door at first.

"I think I knew something was wrong, but I didn't want to accept that.

"[The police officer] said Barry'd been killed. And I said, ‘No, no, there's another Barry McManus, maybe it's him’. They said ‘No, it's definitely your Barry’," said Mrs. McManus.

The prosecution counsel told Dungannon Crown Court during the sentencing of Kovac that, given Mrs. McManus' level of distress as this news was delivered, an officer had to take the baby from her, and nurse him until her parents arrived to support her.

"Then really from there, I don't remember much," said Mrs. McManus.

"All I do know is that Barry was just looking forward to coming home from work to his two children that he absolutely adored, and to me," she said, wiping her tears.

"We definitely were perfect, [life] was absolutely perfect, and then this."

Analysis revealed Kovac’s accelerator pedal was fully depressed for the five-second period before the collision, increasing the speed from 80mph to 95mph in that short time.

No braking activity was recorded, with only “relatively small steering input”.

When arrested, he claimed to have had an argument with his wife, and began consuming alcohol, accepting he had “at least five glasses of vodka”, before getting into his car to listen to music.

Mrs. McManus was later informed that her husband, who was driving on the Belfast Road, had pulled into the ditch to try and avoid Kovac's car, which was driving straight towards him.

"He drove over three lanes to hit Barry. Barry's car was literally in a ditch, in a hedge, and he still hit him, full force," said Mrs. McManus, adding: "He [Kovac] was doing 94 miles per hour. How can he live with himself?"

Mr. McManus was 42 when he died. It was discovered during the trial that he and Kovac shared the same birthday, to the day, making them the exact same age.

Mrs. McManus called the days following Mr. McManus' tragic death "horrendous".

"They wouldn't release Barry's body. Barry was killed on the Saturday morning, [but] we didn't get him home until the Wednesday," she said, adding: "It was constant back and forth, not knowing what was going on, what was going to happen."

Due to concerns that Mr. McManus wouldn't be recognisable as a result of the injuries incurred during the crash, Mrs. McManus was advised that they should have a closed coffin at his wake.

"Then when Barry was buried, the undertaker said we could have had an open coffin. He knew Barry, and he said we would have known it was Barry. He didn't realise that that was the issue.

"That was a big blow, too. I wouldn't have let Ellie see him, because she's too young, but I could have done with seeing him.

"I could have done with giving him a kiss goodbye, because once he left for work, that was the last time I'd seen him."

As Mrs. McManus didn't see her husband's body following his passing, she made herself believe that he was still alive.

"My dreams were constantly that Barry was in the wardrobe. I was believing it, and then I started thinking, did he get away? But of course, [he didn't]," she said.

Amidst her sorrow in the weeks after Mr. McManus' death, the brave act of a stranger brought Mrs. McManus some comfort.

She explained: "A woman contacted me after [the crash]. She said, 'Rachel, I sat with Barry, and held his hand, [but] I knew he was dead'.

"Just the fact that somebody was with him, that was so comforting. Because I don't know if I'd be a big enough person to do that, to hold someone's hand that was dead, and pray with them.

“But she did, and I admire her so much for that. To me, she's like a hero."

During the sentencing, the prosecution referred to a Victim Impact Statement provided by Mrs. McManus where she spoke of the difficulty in seeing the defendant and his family in the locality when her husband is gone, along with the challenges brought by her being alone with their two young children.

Mr. McManus’ daughter also provided “a heartrending note” to the court.

Handing down sentence, Judge Richard Greene KC said the victim’s car was severely damaged in the collision, and the driver’s door had been ripped off.

Mr. McManus was slumped forward and died instantaneously, having sustained serious head injuries.

The first officer to speak with Kovac found him intoxicated, and he admitted drinking earlier.

Judge Greene stated: “I have read the Victim Impact Statements, which eloquently sum up the loss to Mr. McManus’ wife, children and family.

“I have seen a picture in which he has been photoshopped to be included, as he died before that image of the family unit could have been taken.

“The loss to this young family is unfathomable. The impact on them is heartwrenching, to say the least.”

Addressing Kovac directly, Judge Greene told him that the selfish decision that he made "ripped the heart out of a family who will forever be impacted".

"You will serve your sentence and return to your family with the comfort of their visits while in prison.

“You may from time to time think of this matter, but it will not consume you in the way it will affect the victims.

"The combination of your grossly excessive speed and acceleration immediately before impact, driving on the wrong side of the road, your avoidable distraction of a heated argument on the phone, all the while knowing you were under the influence of alcohol, are all relevant factors,” said Judge Greene.

Reflecting on her life with Mr. McManus, Mrs. McManus said: "We had everything, we were happy, life was so good.

“Life is good now, because I have the two kids. I'm so unlucky that I've lost Barry, but I'm the lucky one – I can see the two kids grow up, and that's all he wanted.

"It's just so unfair. He was an amazing dad, and an amazing husband. You just know you won't find love like it again.

"That's what's hard," said Mrs. McManus.

Just as I was about to leave Mrs. McManus' company, a butterfly flew into the kitchen.

This reminded her of how a butterfly had once landed on her son Jack's toy as he was playing with it.

"He was chatting away to it. That was Barry," she said with a sad smile.