19-year-old Edward Alwyn Spencer has been jailed for two years.
He was sentenced to three counts of 24 months following the death of three fellow pupils in a collision in Shipston on Stour on Friday 21 April 2023.
He was also sentenced to three counts of 21 months for seriously injuring three others including two primary aged children. The sentences will run concurrently.
Spencer was the driver of a car containing three other teenagers travelling home from school together, when he lost control and crashed into a car travelling in the opposite direction.
Following the collision, 17-year-old Harry Purcell, 16-year-old Tilly Seccombe and 16-year-old Frank Wormald who were in Edward’s car died as a result of their injuries.
A woman and two children were taken to hospital with serious injuries and they continue to receive ongoing treatment. For the children, this will continue into early adulthood.
Edward Spencer, then 17, passed his driving test five weeks before the incident.
Investigators determined Spencer to be travelling at or around 64mph at the time of the collision. This was too fast for the road and the conditions.
At an earlier court appearance, he pleaded guilty to three counts of causing death by careless driving and three counts of causing serious injury by careless driving.
On sentencing Judge Lockhart commented that the value of the children who died was priceless and that any sentence does not and cannot put a value on the lives lost and that the world will be a poorer place for their passing.
Judge Lockhart described Edward Spencer as an irresponsible and inexperienced young driver and he hoped that Edward would acknowledge and reflect on the carnage caused by his foolish actions on that day. It was a heavily laden car with lots of people in which is not something that a new driver has experience of.
He acknowledged the dignity and restraint of the families but also what the first responders had to deal with at the scene of devastation.
Despite Edward Spencer claiming to be a careful driver who would not have been speeding at the time of the crash, the court heard that evidence included disturbing and indisputable material that showed a history of bad driving and showing off.
They also showed that he was a habitual bad driver with a cavalier attitude towards driving and a scant regard for the safety of others.
The judge recognised that whilst the speed of the road was the national speed limit this was a speed limit and not a target and is a very long way from the speed that is safe.
Edward Spencer was also banned from driving for eight years and will be required to take an extended retest to prove his competence before he is able to drive again.
The officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Sergeant Stephen Barr said: “This was a truly tragic collision, and our thoughts remain with all those involved and affected by what happened.
“Edward Spencer was an inexperienced driver who made decisions on that day that changed many lives forever. He and all the families affected will have to live with the consequences of what he did for the rest of their lives.
“As this tragic case shows the consequences of careless driving can be devastating.
“Any death is difficult to come to terms with but for three young lives to be lost who each had so much to look forward to is extremely challenging.
“We know this conviction will not bring comfort to the loved ones of the three teenagers who lost their lives as well as those who were seriously injured, but we welcome the Judge’s decision in this matter.”
Victim impact statements
Statement from Tilly Seccombe’s mother, Juliet Seccombe:
There are no winners here today – only losers. We have lost our beautiful daughter who had a zest for life and had her future mapped out before her. A life that I know would have achieved great things.
Edward Spencer took away that life due to his reckless behaviour putting his own ego before the safety of himself, his passengers and other road users. No sentence will bring back our daughter and we take little comfort in the punishment of someone else’s son. However, we hope that Edward Spencer can at last reflect on his actions and finally accept responsibility for the devastation he has caused and learns to atone.
We would like to thank all the emergency services who attended the scene, the hospital staff and the police investigation team. All of which have shown us incredible kindness and support.
Even though the numbers of young drivers have dropped significantly since 2010, In 2023 they caused 4959 deaths and serious injury on the roads. That is over 95 per week. This number has increased by 11% from the year before according to government data, and these collisions are almost never an accident – They are nearly always preventable, and it’s due to young drivers using or holding mobile phones, inappropriate speed or speeding on rural roads, risk taking and showing off, as well as drug abuse all of which when you combine this with inexperience is a recipe for disaster.
The saddest part about it is, that it’s generally innocent bystanders or other road users who are killed or suffer life changing injuries – Not the irresponsible driver!
I now want to say this to the Government. Whilst you are not considering Graduated Driving Licences, you have recognised that young people are disproportionately victims of tragic incidents on our roads. You have been exploring options to tackle the root causes of this for decades – It’s time for action – Not procrastination! Otherwise, more families will suffer the devastating loss of their loved ones.
Statement from Harry Purcell’s mum, Toni Purcell:
Words don’t come easy to try to explain the pain of losing your child. It’s an indescribable pain felt every minute of every day. A never-ending nightmare, now a lifetime of sadness.
We had loved every minute of watching Harry grow into such a kind, loving and so very funny young man. Now we can only imagine what his future would have been.
He had always wanted Chelsea season tickets. For years we’d tried to get them for him but couldn’t, however last year Chelsea contacted us to say that they had some available. Sadly Harry will never get to enjoy them.
Not only has Harry been taken from us, he’s been taken from his sister and his twin brother.
We’ll never get the chance to say, I love you, again. We’ll never get the chance to laugh with him.
Every birthday, every holiday, every milestone so painful that Harry won’t be there with us. The guilt we carry that we’re still here and Harry’s life taken.
Our hearts are broken beyond repair. We now only have memories that we’ll hold tight forever.
Let’s not forget the police, paramedics, firefighters. What they witnessed that day, what they witness every day. We’d like to thank each and every one of them.
For the last two years, we have heard so many rumours, opinions and untruths circulating about what happened. This has been incredibly difficult to hear and we’re now glad that the truth will finally be heard.
Edward Spencer was speeding when he killed our son. Our family and so many other families will forever be impacted by his actions that day.
Harry’s death was completely avoidable.
It has taken almost two years for him to plead guilty and two years of us attending several court hearings. Each so hard to bare and each time learning of his not guilty pleas. Edward and his family have shown no empathy or remorse towards us.
Edward Spencer’s sentence will pale into insignificance compared to the sentence he has given our family.
We will never forgive him.
Anonymous statement from stepmother who was the driver of second vehicle:
Firstly, I would like to express my deepest condolences to all of the other families involved. I don’t have the words to express how sorry I am that this has happened. If I could have done anything to stop this, I truly would. If I could go back and give my life to save theirs, to save the suffering my children felt, I would, without hesitation.
Both my children and I are still suffering from the consequences of this crash; there have been countless hospital appointments, operations, therapies. Nothing can undo the trauma that we have all been through; there is still pain, nightmares, flashbacks. I wake in the night from nightmares, picturing the poor children in the other car who didn’t survive. I have flashbacks to being in the car with my children, the intense fear I felt but had to hide for their sake. I see my own children dead in the back seats of my car.
This collision has given me permanent scars, both physically and mentally. I should feel lucky for surviving, but I feel the furthest thing from lucky. The lucky ones are the people who go their whole lives without this trauma – this is not lucky; this is the thing of nightmares.
Edward, had you been sorry for your actions, had you said sorry, had you asked for forgiveness, you would have got it. You did not do this. You showed yourself to be cocky and indifferent, taking almost two years to take responsibility for your actions. You showed everyone that you do not care about the innocent lives you have taken. You do not care that you nearly killed two innocent children. You have not shown any remorse, any regret, any guilt. That is unforgiveable.
This crash, like so many others, was wholly preventable. Graduated driving licenses have been proven to reduce incidents of this kind. Every time I see another crash like this in the news, it breaks my heart, yet still nothing is done to prevent these young lives from being lost.
