Man sentenced for Shipston-on-Stour crash killing three teens

A young driver given a two-year custodial sentence for killing three teens returning home from school had a history of “showing off” at the wheel.

Edward Spencer, 19, was driving a Ford Fiesta near Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, when it crashed with a Fiat 500 in April 2023, six weeks after passing his test.

His passengers Harry Purcell, 17; Matilda 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.

During sentencing at Warwick Crown Court on Monday, Spencer, from Newbold on Stour, Warwickshire, was told he would serve his two years in a youth offenders institution.

The court heard he had been speeding at 64mph before the crash, and that social media videos discovered afterwards had exposed Spencer as having a history of “showing off” and “driving too quickly”.

Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Lockhart KC told him his previous and habitual poor driving meant there was a “terrible inevitability” about the “catastrophic” crash, which was caused, he added, by a “lethal combination” of grossly excessive speed and a failure to drive to the road conditions.

Spencer 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 when the crash 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.

Matilda, known as “Tilly”, was described by her mother as beautiful, funny and bright with a zest for life.

Juliet Seccombe told the BBC her daughter “loved to cook for those she loved” and wanted to attend a cookery school and then go travelling.

“To lose a child is unmeasurable, I can’t even put into words how devastating it is,” 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?”

The court heard CCTV showed Spencer was driving at significantly in excess of the speed limit as he passed a pub three miles from the crash scene.

The stepmother of the two injured children told the BBC they still suffered from nightmares and had endured “multiple operations”.

“They’ve both got scars. My son had a collapsed lung, my daughter had pins put in her elbow, my son had a broken foot,” she said.

“They are recovering but they will never be recovered.”