A man has been given a two-year custodial sentence for killing three teenagers in a crash on their way home from school.
Edward Spencer, now 19, was driving a Ford Fiesta near Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, when it crashed with a Fiat 500 in April 2023, five weeks after passing his test.
His passengers Harry Purcell, 17; Matilda “Tilly” Seccombe, 16; and Frank Wormald, 16, sustained fatal injuries. Spencer last month admitted causing their deaths by careless driving.
He also admitted three counts of causing serious injury by careless driving in relation to the Fiat, occupied by a 10 and 12-year-old travelling with their stepmother. The children suffered “life-changing” injuries.
Spencer, from Newbold on Stour, Warwickshire, is to serve his sentence in a youth offenders institution.
At Warwick Crown Court on Monday, he was also banned from driving for eight years, with a recommendation that he face an extended retest before being allowed to drive again.
The four teenagers had been travelling home from Chipping Campden School in Gloucestershire at the time of the crash, which happened on Campden Road.
Spencer, who was then aged 17, had previously denied all six charges but changed his pleas to guilty in March.
Toni Purcell, mother of Harry, said his death was “completely avoidable”.
“Our hearts are broken beyond repair. We now only have memories that we’ll hold tight forever,” she said in a statement via police.
Separately, in an interview with the BBC, she described her son as cheeky, lovely and kind, and someone who loved and “lived for football”, travelling all over Europe to watch matches.
“I feel so robbed because Harry had grown into such a kind, loving, gorgeous young man. It’s not having him in our lives that has left a massive hole,” she said.
Ms Purcell said she supported graduated driver licensing – a system in which restrictions would be placed on new drivers, and lifted accordingly as they passed certain stages. One restriction on those who had just passed their test might see them prohibited from carrying passengers until they had been driving for six months.
In the case of young drivers, she also backed using black box technology to provide a check to certain practices at the wheel.
“I think a young driver who has a black box is prevented from driving in a manner that is dangerous, can cause harm to passengers and themselves,” she said.
“They can’t speed, they can’t drive dangerously, they can’t drive carelessly and it’s something that’s already in existence so why not utilise that system alongside graduated driver licences?”
