Mother’s anger at car drunk who killed schoolboy

Devastated Karen Strong, mother of 16-year-old Jamie Still, said the four-year sentence given to Max McRae could not compensate for the life sentence she had been left with.

A court heard yesterday that McRae, 21, who was the nearly twice the legal limit, hit bright schoolboy Jamie as he walked back from a takeaway with friends last New Year’s Eve.

Popular Jamie had been attending a family party with three friends when they decided to head out to a nearby Chinese takeaway to pick up some prawn crackers at about 8.50pm.

It was as they were walking back that McRae, who was travelling at around 50mph on a 30mph road, hit the keen sportsman as he tried to cross the road.

The court heard that McRae was driving a Vauxhall Corsa that had an a filter fitted to make the car sound “a bit more racy” and had been drinking in several pubs with a friend and his girlfriend prior to the accident.

When interviewed by police he told them that he had consumed five pints and a shot called a squashed frog before he and his friend, Matthew Evans, went to the car park of a garden centre to perform handbrake turns.

His girlfriend at the time had been dropped off earlier and became concerned when she phoned McRae at about 8.30pm and found out he was driving.

Leeds Crown Court heard that when she rang him at 9.02 pm he told her had just knocked someone down.

Less than three hours later Jamie, of Otley, was pronounced dead.

His mother had been contacted within minutes of the tragic accident and arrived to see her son being treated by ambulance staff.

Michael Smith, prosecuting, said: “She followed her son to the hospital and was with him when he died.

“Not surprisingly she describes her life as having been shattered by the death of her son. That loss has been felt by his sister and all other members of his family.”

Death was from severe head and chest injuries after Jamie was hit with such force that he was hurled into some metal sheeting surrounding renovation works to a nearby church.

When McRae was breathalysed by police he gave a reading of 63mg per 100ml of blood, the legal limit for driving being 35mg per 100ml.

Passing sentence, Judge Jennifer Kershaw QC said the speeding and the warnings he ignored from his girlfriend had to be taken into account.

“Further and unfortunately the defendant had been drinking that evening.

Plainly he decided to ignore the advice his girlfriend was giving him,” she said.

McRae, of Arthington, pleaded guilty to death by careless driving while unfit through drink in August and was handed an interim driving disqualification then.

Accounts manager Mrs Strong, 37, voiced the family’s concerns after the sentence. She said after the case: “Until a few week ago McRae remained at liberty to continue to drive.

“Not only is this totally disrespectful to Jamie, it is agony to bear for his family and friends.

“Why does the law allow offenders such as McRae the right to continue performing the activities that led to someone’s death?

“Please can we change this anomaly in the law and show some respect and feeling for victims and not perpetrators.”

She added: “It will never be just, I have a life sentence and he got four years.”

McRae was also disqualified from driving for five years.