Quite The Most Breathtaking Attempt At Mitigation I’ve Ever Heard……

…and I have heard a lot:

Rufus Taylor, mitigating for Walker, urged the judge sitting at the court to give the defendant a suspended sentence. "It is beyond question that Gemma Kerslake was not wearing her seatbelt, nor was Kerri Downes and nor therefore was her one-year-old daughter," Mr Taylor said.

"Had they been worn, it may have avoided any serious injuries at all."

What?!?

Yes, they were stupid, both to get into a car with a cretin, and to then not wear a seatbelt, but even so! They weren't driving!

Not that you can call this driving:

Oliver Walker was one of six people - including two babies - inside his father's Peugeot when the vehicle left the road and careered into a ditch on November 10 2013. He had "unnecessarily" overtaken another car being driven by a friend in the seconds before he missed the junction at Cuckoo Lane next to the Puddletown bypass, went across a road and crashed.

…

Walker, of South Street in Wareham, had passed his driving test in May 2013 - less than six months before the crash took place.

…

Walker had admitted making a false statement to obtain insurance at an earlier hearing, and it was heard that he had bought insurance online under the pretence that he had been driving for longer than he really had on 33 occasions.

…

Nicholas Cotter, prosecuting, said passengers in the car had warned Walker to slow down in the moments before the collision, which took place on a stretch of road limited to 60 miles per hour.

"Ms Kerslake said the speed [in the seconds before the crash] was around 75mph," Mr Cotter said.

"Others say it was between 70mph and 80mph."

An accident just waiting to happen. Thank fate that the only injuries were to the chavs, and not to innocent road users.

Judge Brian Forster QC said Walker must be sent to prison for the offences. "You overtook a car being driven by someone you know and having completed that overtaking manoeuvre you drove at speed and were accelerating towards a junction that you apparently didn't know to be there," he said. "That overtaking manoeuvre was unnecessary and in my judgement you were trying to show off."

Walker, who wept throughout the hearing, shouted "love you" to family sitting in the public gallery as he was led away.

I wonder if they shouted anything back?