A speeding motorist who killed a teenage passenger in a horrific high-speed crash had his jail sentence reduced by appeal judges yesterday.
Fisherman James Neill, 36, was driving at up to 110mph before he lost control of a Honda Civic and hit a large rock at the side of the A83 Tarbet to Campbeltown road, near Erines, in Argyll.
Natasha Clark, 17, from Aberdeenshire, suffered multiple injuries in the collision and was airlifted to hospital in Glasgow, where she died the following day.
Neill, of Easfield, Tarbert, was jailed for nine years earlier this year at the High Court in Edinburgh after he admitted causing her death by dangerous driving on August 20, 2012.
However, his lawyers went to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh to challenge the sentence, claiming it was excessive, and yesterday secured a reduction to seven years and eight months.
Lady Clark of Calton, who heard the appeal with Lady Cosgrove, said the sentencing judge had not fully considered the benefits of the early guilty plea.
Neill’s lawyers had argued that this had avoided the need for witnesses to give evidence about “the very distressing events”.
However, the appeal judges said they were in no doubt that a lengthy custodial sentence was appropriate.
Lady Clark said: “The judge made it plain in his report and in his sentencing remarks that he considered that the crash was the culmination of a persistent and deliberate course of very bad driving over a distance of three miles.
“The speed of the vehicle was grossly excessive. The extreme danger to the occupants of the appellant’s vehicle and to other road users was obvious.”
The appeal judges were told hairdresser Sandra Harvey, who was also injured in the crash, was in the back seat of the car with Miss Clark, and held her hand when she saw how frightened she looked.
The car was still estimated to be doing more than 70 mph when it hit the rock.
Miss Clark, a former pupil of Aboyne Academy, who had been staying at Oakhill, Tarbert, and working in the town’s Co-op, was airlifted to Glasgow Royal Infirmary with severe brain injuries.
Just 24 hours later, her family took the agonising decision to halt medical treatment and she died.
When Neill as jailed, her father, Ian Clark, of Aboyne, said even a 30-year jail sentence would not have been punishment enough.
“It’s nice to know he’s locked away but nothing is going to bring her back. It doesn’t change anything,” he told reporters.