Young mother's grief that crash victim will never see his daughter

A TEENAGER died and never saw his baby daughter after being thrown from a car in a high-speed crash caused by a friend, a court heard yesterday.

Others in the car escaped with minor injuries and Danny McBean, 16, of Inverness, would probably have survived too, but he had not been wearing a seatbelt.

His girlfriend, Courtnay Johnston, was carrying their baby. She gave birth to Amelia Danni some months after the accident.

Paul Munro, 21, a mechanic, of Bunchrew, near Inverness, admitted causing Mr McBean's death by dangerous driving on 18 September last year on the A862 near Lentran. He was one and a half times the legal alcohol limit and failed to take a bend at about 70mph and hit a wall.

He will be sentenced later.

The High Court in Edinburgh was told that Mr McBean's sister, Hayleigh, had given a victim impact statement, which said: "Since Danny's daughter was born, things became slightly easier. It is as if we got to keep a part of him. However, whenever I look at her, not only does my heart fill with joy, I get a rush of sadness knowing she will never meet her father."

Munro and others had been at a friend's house in Inverness. He had intended staying the night, but one of the others asked for a lift home and he initially refused because he had been drinking, but then agreed. Mr McBean decided to accompany him.

The car overtook another vehicle at speed, causing the driver to say: "That boy is mental, he is going to crash."

A short time later, Munro failed to negotiate a slight double bend.

"The vehicle struck a traffic cone and collided by way of a glancing blow with a stone wall, before striking a telegraph pole," said the advocate-depute, Gillian More. "This was immediately followed by a heavy collision with another area of the wall, resulting in the vehicle overturning and rolling along the carriageway. The deceased was propelled from the rear of the vehicle and landed on the carriageway."

Mr McBean died instantly from a head injury.

Munro initially claimed to police that he had not known who was driving the car. A blood sample showed an alcohol count of 121, the legal limit being 80.

Later, he admitted being the driver and said he had two bottles of beer and half a bottle of Buckfast to drink. He told police: "He had no other way of getting home. I ended up agreeing to give him a lift."

Munro stated he had been "going about 70, 75" just prior to the crash.

Lord Brodie deferred sentence for background reports, but warned Munro that a jail sentence was "essentially inevitable".