A 21-year-old Mid Wales drink-driver who hit and killed a man walking home in the dark was today starting a three-year jail sentence.

David Sivell, 21, of Elan Valley, Rhayader, was more than double the drink-drive limit when he hit Stuart Adin Jarvis.

Mr Jarvis, 35, had been making his way to his home at Doldowlod, near Llandrindod Wells, on a dark, unlit road after a “trivial” row with his partner, Cardiff Crown Court heard yesterday.

Mr Richard Twomlow, prosecuting, said Mr Jarvis had been in the Black Lion pub in Rhayader with his girlfriend Vanessa Thomas on February 23 and was “quite drunk” by 6.30pm.

There was a trivial argument and Mr Jarvis said he was walking home.”

Mr Jarvis was wearing dark clothing and was walking towards Elan Valley, the same direction Sivell was going, when he was hit by his Peugeot 306.

Another driver, David Price, who saw Mr Jarvis shortly before the accident was so concerned for his safety he turned his car around to offer assistance.

But when Mr Price returned, Mr Jarvis was lying on the ground bleeding. He died of severe head injuries.

Sivell, who told police he had drunk four or five pints after finishing work as a butcher and delivery driver, drove home, where he told his grandmother: “I came over the hill and he was there in the road. I think I’ve killed him, nan.”

The pair drove back to the scene, the B4518 between Rhayader and Elan village, with Sivell distressed, swearing and crying.

A breath test showed he had 77 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The limit is 35.

Sivell was arrested and later admitted causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed limit. He told police he had not felt drunk and at first thought he had hit an animal.

Mr Tom Crowther, for Sivell, said he had no previous convictions and had not been speeding.

He said: “For a man of his character and record, to have become, through his actions on that night, the instrument of bereavement of another family is intolerable to him.”

By Deborah Knox