A British father was found guilty today of causing the deaths of four of his children when he crashed his 4x4 vehicle into a river.
Nigel Gresham was behind the wheel when he crashed into the River Witham, Lincolnshire, in September last year.
Willow (2), Angel (4), Thor (6) and Keavy (8) were passengers in the Land Rover when it crashed.
Gresham (37), formerly of Chapel Hill, Lincolnshire, was convicted of causing their deaths by dangerous driving following a trial at Lincoln Crown Court.
The court was told he was driving too fast and his vehicle was not roadworthy.
The jury heard earlier Gresham said he "did everything he could" to avoid the tragedy.
Jurors were read transcripts of police interviews in the aftermath in which he described the vital last seconds before the accident as a "no-win situation".
Gresham sat with head bowed as the court heard how his vehicle and a Transit van, towing canoes, approached each other, travelling in opposite directions, on a narrow road.
The white Transit did not pull over, he said, and the defendant was forced to make a "split second" decision.
"I considered whether I should go to the right of him or to the left of him," he said. "I took the decision to go to the left because it was the only real option - to try to avoid the river and the collision."
As the Land Rover drove onto the grass verge, a bracket close to the rear axle snapped, causing the car to turn on its side and roll down the bank into the water, the court was told previously.
"The best course of action to do would have been to run into the Transit van and the chances are, with my children strapped in, they would have survived," Gresham told police.
"But who in their right mind would have run into something? So, I took evasive action. I know in my heart that everything I did, from the moment I saw the Transit van to getting the last child out, I did everything I could for them."
A police examination of the Land Rover, which had been heavily modified by Gresham, after the accident raised questions about the vehicle's road-worthiness.
The hand brake did not work, the gear box had been borrowed from a friend's car, the front tyres were damaged, parts were mismatched and corrosion was found.