Death chase drivers get 4½ years

A JUDGE sentenced two racing teenage motorists to four and a half years' detention yesterday for causing the death of a young rugby hopeful in a crash.

Sean Goodfellow, 19, and Murray McAllan, 19, reached speeds in excess of 90mph as they chased each other on a winding country road in the Borders.

Goodfellow lost control of his car at a bend and it somersaulted into a field, killing passenger Richard Wilkinson, 17, his Hawick Wanderers team-mate.

Judge Kenneth Maciver said at the High Court in Edinburgh that the driving of both youths had been "indescribably stupid". Both were 18 at the time.

The dead youth's family issued a statement saying: "We cannot begin to put into words the loss we feel … if there could be one positive thing to come from losing Richard, we can only wish that young drivers learn from the devastating consequences of speeding and driving dangerously and the resultant loss of young lives."

Goodfellow, a forestry worker, of Myreslaw Green, Hawick, and McAllan, an apprentice engineer, of Bellrig, Bonchester Bridge, near Hawick, admitted causing the death of Mr Wilkinson, a farmer, of Newmill-on- Slitrig, near Hawick, by dangerous driving on 4 April last year on the A698 between Kelso and Jedburgh.

Sentencing, the judge said the Wilkinson family's grief was immeasurable and that there was a need to reinforce a clear message on the dangers and consequences of bad driving.