The father of one of the victims of a fatal head-on crash, which also killed two police officers, has been arrested again after failing to turn up at court over an assault at his own son's funeral.

Gye Worthy, 40, was due to be sentenced for common assault against a celebrant at Teesside Crematorium in Middlesbrough on 9 September.

At the time he was attending the funeral of his son Cole, 17, one of seven who died when the Volkswagen Passat he was in hit a marked police car on the A66 in South Bank on 22 August.

An arrest warrant was issued when Worthy failed to turn up at Teesside Crown Court on Tuesday where he was due to be sentenced for the assault and resisting arrest.

The court heard Worthy, of Ruskin Avenue, Middlesbrough, had not spoken to his solicitors or explained his absence to the court.

He was also due to be sentenced for stealing four bottles of wine worth £30 from a shop on 8 October.

Deputy District Judge Julia Baggs agreed to an application by the prosecution for a warrant to be issued, "not backed by bail", which meant he would be held in custody ahead of any future court date.

Worthy previously admitted assaulting celebrant Paul Maull during the funeral service for his son, which was held on the same day as that of PC Matthew Blades, 37, who was one of the officers killed in the crash.

PC Blades had been travelling along the A66 with his colleague PC Tom Clough when their car was struck head-on by the Passat travelling in the wrong direction.

The pair were in a vehicle looking for the Passat after its cloned registration plates triggered a camera, although they were not involved in the pursuit which preceded the crash, according to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

The others killed in the Passat were Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Jakub Matusiak, 23, Makai Saddington, 18, and 17-year-old Theo Rae.

It later emerged the Worthy family home in Acklam had been rammed by a car shortly before the A66 crash.

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