Two-year sentence for driver in 120mph car chase

A DRIVER who took three young women on a "petrifying" 120mph drive through Edinburgh had previously been jailed for trying to outrun the police in a van.

Yesterday in court Paul Whytock, who also once appeared in court alongside former Hibs winger Filipe Morais over a nightclub brawl, admitted driving dangerously in the latest incident.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard the 28-year-old had met the three women in Edinburgh and had offered to take them to a party. They were unaware that he had a history of being involved in police chases and when they got into his Audi TT, Whytock started speeding.

As police tried to pull him over, Whytock told the screaming women: "Don't worry, I can outrun them." He then went on to run red lights as he tried to escape police cars that were chasing him.

At one stage he even drove the wrong way down a slip road and on to the city bypass in the way of oncoming traffic.

During the incident on February 27 this year he overtook a bus on a bend, and continued to drive whilst being pursued by the police. He also admitted driving the wrong way up a slip road on to the bypass into the face of oncoming traffic, and reached speeds of up to 120mph in 70mph zones and 70mph in 40mph areas.

Fiscal depute Gerard Drugan told the court that a police officer eventually found his car abandoned near the Gogar roundabout and he was caught at around 9.45pm after trying to return to Edinburgh along a nearby railway track.

Mr Drugan said that one of the women, a 28-year-old, recounted the horrific ordeal. He quoted her as saying: "I remember we were driving around the west side of the town. We all kept telling him to slow down. He ignored us. I was petrified. I remember I shouted stop at the red light, but he just went straight through. I thought his driving was outrageous and I have never seen anything like this before.

"I also remember him saying that the police were behind us. He said: 'Don't worry, I can outrun them.' At some point at this time someone shouted: 'You're going to kill us.' But he just kept going. It was like he was in his own wee world and was getting a thrill out of it. He didn't care what was happening to us."

Whytock was jailed for six months last January following another high-speed chase through Edinburgh which ended when he crashed into a parked police car.

Defence agent Peter Winning called the latest offence an "outrageous piece of driving".

Whytock admitted driving dangerously while under the influence of drugs or alcohol on the West Approach Road and other roads in Edinburgh, including the city bypass.

Sentencing him, Sheriff Mhairi Stephen said: "This was the most appalling course of driving. It was completely fortuitous that on that evening nobody came to grief."It's almost a miracle that was the case."

She banned Whytlock from driving for 20 years and jailed him for two years.

In February 2009, Whytock was fined 160 for breach of the peace following a brawl outside an Edinburgh Casino. His co-accused, ex-Hibs winger Filipe Morais, who currently plays for Oldham, was fined 500 for assault.