Arron Peak, 10, and his brother Ben, eight, were killed in a crash on the M6 in Staffordshire on Saturday morning as they made their way to Silverstone for a day out.

The Toyota Previa people carrier in which they were travelling with their father and friends was in collision with a black Range Rover shortly before 5.45am, police said.

One of the boys was confirmed dead at the scene. His brother was later pronounced dead at hospital.

The boys' father, Philip Peak, 37, who was at the wheel of the Toyota, remains seriously ill in intensive care at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

He sustained a suspected broken neck and back in the crash, which happened between junctions 15 and 16 of the southbound carriageway.

The three other occupants of the people carrier - a 49-year-old man and his sons, aged eight and 15 - were treated at the same hospital for minor injuries.

Amanda Peak, 30, the devastated mother of the two boys, from Partington, Manchester, said: "No parent should have to go through the nightmare we have gone through."

Plymouth Argyle goalkeeper McCormick, 24, is a former England youth international and was twice voted Argyle's young player of the season, according to the Championship club's website.

The Coventry-born footballer is charged with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol and driving without insurance. He will appear before magistrates in Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent.