Russell Leadbetter and Murdo Maclean

They were married less than nine years ago, with a glittering reception at upmarket Cameron House, surrounded by family and friends.

Colin and Paula Mackinnon were well-known BBC Scotland journalists with excellent track records.

But their life together was shattered by the events of last October, when a car Paula was driving crashed on the Isle of Lewis, leaving 45-year-old Colin critically ill.

Six months on he remains seriously ill in a Glasgow hospital, so badly brain- damaged that his family say he will need nursing care for the rest of his life.

On Wednesday, Stornoway Sheriff Court was told that Paula was three times the legal limit when she caused the crash that injured her husband.

After admitting to drink-driving and dangerous driving, she was fined a total of £1600 and banned from driving for two years.

After the case, Colin's family hit out at what they felt had been a too lenient sentence.

Colin's brother, Iain, barely able to conceal his anger, said: "The sentence is outrageous. A custodial sentence should have been considered for something like this.

"We just don't think the sentence is enough," he said. "We are very unhappy that this sentence has happened. To think that someone could do this and ruin another person's life and just get a two-year ban - that is ridiculous."

The family claim that Colin, who is in a wheelchair, suffered a fall some three weeks ago and although there were no side effects at the time, he later began having seizures, was rushed into intensive care, and was hooked up to a ventilator.

"Colin is as good as dead," the family in Stornoway declared.

However, friends and colleagues yesterday spoke differently of the tragedy, expressing shock at what had happened.

One family friend said: "This is a desperately sad situation. Colin and Paula are both extremely popular, warm and decent people, intelligent and talented. What has happened to them both is tragic beyond words."

The friend added that Colin was seen by his colleagues as a "man without ego, which is a rarity in the media business. The same is equally true of Paula."

Colin, who is originally from South Uist, presented news and current affairs programmes on BBC Scotland, including the award-winning European affairs programme, Eorpa.

Its BBC website pages include a message from Colin, on the return of the series, in which he wrote: "I combine feelings of fun and fear about the high, fast trip that comprises the new series of Eorpa."

Just under a decade ago, he became a published poet when his work was included in An Tuil, an anthology of 20th-century Gaelic verse.

His eulogy to the late Celtic manager Jock Stein, called Cothrom Peanais, was featured alongside works by greats such as Sorley MacLean and George Campbell Hay.

"It's not clear how long ... Mackinnon has been a poet," the Sunday Herald observed at the time, "but surprised colleagues have now dubbed him the Bard of Broadcasting House."

Iain Maciver, a journalist and broadcaster based on Stornoway, once shared a house with Colin, and they worked at the BBC together, some 20 years ago. "You couldn't get a more helpful, generous guy," he said. "I regarded him as a really good friend, as did most people - I don't think you'll hear many people say anything else."

Mr Maciver recalled that the accident prompted much talk on Stornoway.

"It was obvious that it had happened at speed and there was some confusion in the first few days as to who was actually driving. There was a lot of wild speculation about that for a while."

The Nissan Micra, which Paula had borrowed from her father, failed to negotiate a bend on the Lower Bayble junction on the main Point-to-Stornoway road and careered off the carriageway. It came to a rest in nearby moorland, facing in the opposite direction. Stornoway Sheriff Court heard that Paula was going "too fast" to safely make it past the bend.

When the emergency services arrived, Colin was found to be "very, very seriously injured," while Paula "smelt of drink" when police officers spoke with her.

The Herald was unable to contact Paula yesterday.

Her CV includes producing BBC Scotland's flagship news programme, as well as occasional current-affairs broadcasts for the BBC.

Last summer, the 35-year-old made headlines of her own when she attempted to donate one of her healthy kidneys in a bid to save a life.

"You may think I am mad but I am not," she wrote prior to the screening of her BBC 1 investigative programme, Buying Hope: Selling Illegal Organs. She said she had arrived at her decision after her mother, Katherine, had kidney failure: she began the process of donating to her but found they were not compatible.

The journalist underwent lengthy tests to see if she could donate one of her kidneys to a stranger, but a family friend said yesterday that he understood she had not been able to realise her wish.