Girl, 18, crushed to death under car after being flung from faulty passenger door when drug-driver made dangerous turn
A TEEN girl was crushed to death under a car after being flung from a faulty passenger door when a drug-driver made a dangerous turn.
Leonie Jones, 18, was travelling in Mark Coleman’s car when he made a high speed reverse manoeuvre known as a J-turn.
She was thrown from the car and crushed to death following the horror in a disused car park.
Coleman, who had been warned by police previously over his driving, was found to have taken cannabis and cocaine.
He has now been jailed for six years after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving while under the influence of drink and drugs.
In a heartbreaking victim impact statement, Leonie’s mum slammed Coleman for “living his best life” in Ibiza just two months after the tragedy.
Carmel Richards also told of her torment at her daughter’s death as she accused the killer driver of showing “no remorse or compassion”.
The mum added: “She’s gone and I’m broken hearted. I can never talk to her, hold her.
“I’m tormented by what she endured. You took her from me.”
Hove Crown Court was told the horror unfolded in Crawley in the early hours of April 25, 2022.
Coleman, now 23, had been drinking and taking drugs when he offered to take Leonie and a friend home.
He knew the passenger door was faulty and forgot to close it properly when Leonie got in.
At around 2.30am, the driver called 999 to tell them Leonie was trapped under his car.
Fire crews lifted the car but tragically the teen couldn’t be saved.
A post mortem gave a cause of death as shock, haemorrhage and compressive force to the torso.
Coleman, who was also banned from driving for seven years, will serve half his sentence before he is released.