Edward Spencer made a pledge to Matilda Seccombe’s father, James, insisting he would look after his teenage daughter – only to career his Ford Fiesta into a Fiat near Chipping Campden
A teenage driver who killed three friends in a crash on the way home from school had promised the dad of one of the victims he’d be “careful” behind the wheel, it has emerged.
Edward Spencer, 19, admitted three counts of causing death by careless driving and three counts of causing serious injury by careless driving. A court heard he had only passed his test weeks before losing control of his Ford Fiesta and ploughing into a Fiat on a country road.
Now it has emerged one of the victims – 16-year-old Matilda Seccombe – had raised concerns about the manner of his driving just hours before the fatal collision. Her dad, James, told the media Spencer had promised to look after Matilda, known as Tilly, but “clearly, he didn’t”.
James, a parish councillor, said he now wishes he had never let his daughter go in the car, a decision made after meeting Spencer at a party Tilly hosted for friends at home in Preston on Stour, Warwickshire.
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James and his wife Juliet said they were still getting to know Tilly’s friends at the school, which she had joined the previous September for the sixth form, at the time of her death.
Recalling the party at which they met Spencer, James, 55, said: “That was when we agreed to let her go in the car – something we now wish we never had done… I did say to (Spencer) face to face here in our living room to be careful when driving with people in the car and he promised me he would be. Clearly, he didn’t.”
Spencer was handed an interim driving ban on Monday at Warwick Crown Court. He will be sentenced next month and Judge Andrew Lockhart KC warned the teenager he faces a custodial term.
The court appearance came days after three teenagers were killed in a horror crash near Shifnal, Shropshire, which West Mercia Police continues to investigate. Such tragedies have led to calls for “graduated” driving licences for new road users, which would carry restrictions such as a six-month ban on ferrying younger passengers.
It is something James and Juliet are backing as they reflect on the crash near Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, which also claimed the lives of twin Harry Purcell, 17, and fellow sixth-former Frank Wormald, 16, and left three occupants of the Fiat seriously injured.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, James added: “Tilly hadn’t told us that Spencer was driving poorly because she knew that if she had, we would have put a stop to it and she would have had to go back to using the school bus.
“But after the incident, a friend gave a statement to police to say that she was worried about Ed’s driving – she had confided this on the afternoon of her death.”
The dad said messages were subsequently found on Tilly’s phone which “show there was obviously another (driving) incident that she was clearly cross about – to which she got a belligerent response (from Spencer).”
The court heard Spencer – a keen rugby player – does not remember the circumstances around the April 2023 collision. The defendant, who is from a farming family in Newbold on Stour, Warwickshire, “hasn’t shown remorse,” Juliet said.
The mum, who runs her own soft furnishing business, added: “Until yesterday (Monday), he has spent two years not facing up to what he has done. His legal team commissioned two accident investigation reports – one of which was legally aided – on top of the police crash investigation.” Spencer will be sentenced at Warwick Crown Court in April.
