'Don't jail joyrider who killed my daughter'

The mother of a teenage girl killed in a horrific car crash today defended the joyrider responsible - saying he should not have been locked up.

James Brand, 19, ran from the burning wreckage, leaving Katie Wallace, 14, and her boyfriend Ashley Fowle, 15, dying in the back seat. He made no attempt to call emergency services.

Brand, 19, was sentenced to five years after he admitted causing death by dangerous driving. But today Katie's mother Barbara, 47, said Brand should not have been jailed.

"I hold no ill will against that poor young man, he's just a kid and shouldn't go to prison," she told the Standard. "Five years is far too long, the judge should have let him go. He's suffered enough. He'll have Katie's and Ashley's deaths on his conscience forever."

Mrs Wallace, from Dagenham, added: "I'm devastated by what happened and I'll never get over it but I don't think jailing him serves any purpose. I just want to forget it now, I've been through too much."

Yesterday Snaresbrook Crown Court heard how Brand had been laughing with his passengers up to the moment of impact in Porters Road, Dagenham. In his uninsured Ford Ka along with Katie and Ashley were a 15-year-old girl and Scott Cronin, 18.

Alyson Barker, prosecuting, said: "He was showing off by swerving from side to side at speeds of up to 60mph to excite his passengers.

"But he lost control and crashed into a stationary Ford Transit van before colliding with a tree, causing the vehicle to catch fire. He ran from the scene, leaving the passengers trapped in the burning car." Firefighters were called by a local resident, and cut them free. All were taken to hospital, where Katie and Ashley died soon after. Brand hid at a neighbour's home before handing himself into police days later.

Mrs Wallace described how her daughter crept out of the house after kissing her goodnight and going to bed. At 3am two police officers came to her home and told her her daughter was dead: "I kept saying, 'But Katie's upstairs in bed, she can't be dead, she can't be,'" In court, Brand, of Dagenham, admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving in the early hours of 27 April last year. Stephen Field, defending, said: "He did not realise the car was a lethal weapon and he had his finger on the trigger."

Judge William Birtles sentenced him to five years in a Young Offender Institution, banned him from driving for two years, and endorsed his licence with 10 points.