Police stopped drugged-up boy racer 50 minutes before he killed two teenage girls

A boy racer high on ketamine and mephedrone was pulled over by police just 50 minutes before he mowed down and killed two teenage girls, a court heard.

Samuel Etherington, 21, was stopped at 3.25am after uniform officers saw a broken rear light on his modified Honda Civic.

At 4.15am, he crashed into friends Jasmine Allsop, 14, and Olivia Lewry, 16, in the road at 65mph - more than double the 30mph limit.

The speeding driver had taken a mixture of ketamine, a horse tranquilliser, and mephedrone in the 24 hours before the crash in Gosport, Hants.

Jasmine's heartbroken mother Rose Allsop, 38, claims her daughter might be alive if the officers who pulled Etherington over had tested him for drugs and not just let him speed away.
Ms Allsop said: "If they'd have pulled him over, the accident wouldn't have happened in the first place.

"They should have done some kind of test on him. That's what makes me angry."

Hampshire Police maintains they carried out stop-check procedures correctly as a drugs test in not normal procedure when pulling over a driver with a broken rear light.

Officers said Etherington's driving had not been inappropriate and he was "behaving normally" when stopped.

A force spokesman said: "The driver, Samuel Etherington, was reported for the defective rear light and he was seen to be behaving normally. No inappropriate driving was observed either prior to or following this stop check by these officers.

"The driver was observed as behaving normally at this point and as such no roadside test for intoxication was required."

A court heard there is no evidence to suggest Etherington's drug consumption impaired his driving in any way.

Etherington, from Gosport, Hants, pleaded guilty to two counts of death by dangerous driving and was given a nine-year prison sentence in February.

However, last week The Court of Appeal refused all attempts by the 21-year-old to appeal against his jail term.           
Jasmine's brother Reece, 16, created a drug-driving awareness campaign after his sister died at the scene, just yards from their home on November 3rd last year.

He said: "The police should have drug checked him. Now I'm trying to get the word out there and make people aware not to do drugs and go out and drive. It's just as bad as drinking."

Olivia was taken to hospital where she later died.