Boy racer who killed friend hopes to be road safety champion

Jack Parkes, 20, reached more than 80mph on a country road as he tried to keep ahead of another vehicle which he had just overtaken, and lost control coming out of a bend.

His car smashed into a wall and somersaulted into a field, and Mark Scott, 19, who was in the passenger seat, died instantly from internal injuries.

Mr Scott, of Torphins, Aberdeenshire, was an only child who had been about to start an apprenticeship as an aeronautical engineer, and the High Court in Edinburgh was told that his loss had devastated his family.

Peter Gray, QC, for Parkes, said the accused had also been badly affected. He had “overwhelming remorse” and would be haunted for the rest of his life “by the stark recognition that he has been responsible for having caused the death of a very close friend”.

Mr Gray added: “He has expressed the desire to be involved in any educational initiative that helps bring home the message to others tempted to drive as he did how fraught the consequences might be.

“He has spoken to his former school headteacher to see if something in due course could be arranged for him to give advice, and went so far as to have a number of discussions with a company which specialises in presentation skills to assist him in that project.”

Parkes was given a sentence of two years and eight months’ detention and a five-year driving ban yesterday by Lord Tyre, who said: “You have taken away all of the years of life Mark Scott ought to have had… and caused his family grief and suffering which they might never get over. Nothing I say or do can bring him back or provide any comfort or consolation to his family.”

Parkes, of Ash Tree Road, Banchory, Aberdeenshire, admitted causing Mr Scott’s death by dangerous driving on 29 May last year, on the A980 Alford to Banchory road near Raemoir, Aberdeenshire.

Robbie Merchant, 25, of Woodside Road, Banchory, the driver of the other car, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving. He was fined £600 and disqualified for two years.

The court heard that Parkes and Mr Scott had not known Merchant, but met him that night through a mutual friend, Amy Garden.

She got into Merchant’s black Citroen Saxo in Torphins around 10:30pm, and they headed to Banchory. Parkes and Mr Scott followed in the accused’s blue Mini Cooper S.

Parkes overtook the Saxo, and Merchant “had not liked it” and accelerated to keep up, with both vehicles reaching more than 80mph, said the advocate-depute, Martin Macari.

The Mini took a bend but Parkes lost control coming out of it, and the car struck a dry stone wall and spun back across the road and overturned before landing on its side in a field.

Moments later, the Saxo negotiated the bend and was met by “a large cloud of smoke”. It hit debris and Merchant managed to keep control and to bring the car to a halt. Parkes required surgery for a broken ankle, and wore a hard collar until a fracture in his neck had healed.

The dead teenager’s mother, Dorothy-Anne Scott, 49, said: “Mark was a wonderful young man and will always be missed and loved by his family and friends … there is no moving on when the most important thing in your life has been taken away.

“Friends have got a memorial stone from the woods where they all played as children. There is a plaque and his photo, outside the shop where he worked.”