Teen who killed friend in Bilston bike crash has sentence cut
A teenager who killed his friend while ‘showing off’ on a stolen bike has had his sentence slashed by top judges.
Brett Everitt, aged 17, was riding the 125cc scooter in the middle of the street when it collided with a car in Bilston’s Lunt Road last year.
He was sentenced to five years’ detention after admitting causing the death of passenger Kian Buckler by dangerous driving.
But judges at London’s Criminal Appeal Court declared Everitt’s sentence was too harsh and cut his sentence by eight months.
'Disturbed and disrupted background'
Mrs Justice May, sitting with two other judges at the court on Thursday, said: “Understandably, the aggravating factors weighed very heavily in the balance for the judge during this very difficult sentencing exercise.
“Insufficient consideration was given to his youth and his disturbed and disrupted background.
“We quash the sentence of five years and substitute one of four years four months.
Mrs Justice May said Everitt, who was 16 at the time of the offence, ‘created an obvious risk of danger’ to his friend.
She said that Everitt, who had driven up and down the road for 10 minutes before the crash, had engaged in ‘prolonged and persistent bad driving displaying an element of showing off’.
Everitt, who said he bought the stolen bike for £30, made a ‘deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road’ and showed ‘a disregard of danger to others’, she added.
“He knew he was unprotected and created an obvious risk of serious injury,” added Mrs Justice May:
“Nothing can restore Kian to his family.”
Kian suffered serious head injures in the crash when he was catapulted off the back of the bike on November 29.
The 15-year-old, who was the second eldest of four children, died days later in hospital.
Neither boy was wearing a helmet, protective head gear or reflective clothing.
The bike also had no registration plates or head lights.
Everitt, of Thompson Road, Oldbury, had been showing off by ‘pulling wheelies’ and sometimes riding the bike at speed, the court had been told.
A vehicle crashed into the scooter at the junction of Lunt Road and Boswell Road after the driver was said to be unable to see the bike.
Everitt, who was sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court in January, also admitted driving without a licence or insurance, and failing to provide a sample for analysis.
The defendant, who had 25 previous convictions and suffered a fractured jaw and knee, was also handed a five-year driving ban.
