'Maniac' driver caught on camera killing Leeds teenager in sickening hit-and-run jailed for 15 years
A driver who was filmed behind the wheel of a high-powered car that struck and killed a teenager in Leeds has been found guilty of causing his death and jailed.
Regan Kemp was being recorded on a mobile phone by a backseat passenger in the Ford Focus ST when it smashed into Ashton Kitchen-White on a pelican crossing at nearly three times the speed limit.
A witness in the car at the time said Kemp had been driving “like a maniac”.
Despite this, he denied being behind the wheel and sought to shift the blame onto his friend.
Following a four-day trial at Leeds Crown Court, the jury deliberated for less than two hours to find him unanimously guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. An audible cheer from the public gallery was heard when the verdict was announced.
Kemp, 26, was handed a sentence of 15 years and six months. He was also banned from driving more than 17 years.
He has a multitude of previous driving offences, including taking without the owner’s consent, dangerous driving, driving without a licence and most significantly, perverting the course of justice by attempting to blame another person for driving offences.
Judge Neil Clark told him that he would “never contribute to society” like Mr Kitchen-White, who was due to start a medical degree.
He told Kemp: “You sought to blame an obviously innocent man.
“You ran this case, despite what seems to me to be the strongest of evidence.
“Never once have you admitted what you did. Never once have you expressed any remorse. Never once have you said you made a mistake.”
Kemp had driven the Ford Focus from Scotland on the afternoon of May 16, bound for Leeds. Two of his friends were driving in convoy in a Mini Cooper.
They were travelling to Middleton to potentially swap the Focus for a VW Golf GTD.
Kemp took the proposed recipient of the Focus for a test drive after arriving at the Leeds address around 10pm.
The witness who took the footage from the backseat of the Focus later told the jury that Kemp was “driving like a maniac”, revving the engine and accelerating at speed.
Moments later, the Focus struck 19-year-old Mr Kitchen-White on the pelican crossing on Ring Road Beeston. The sickening thud was heard on the camera-phone footage.
Experts calculated the Focus was travelling at 80mph on the 30mph stretch when it hit Mr Kitchen-White.
The Crown said he suffered catastrophic injuries and had “no chance” of surviving.
Mr Kitchen-White, who had enrolled at Leeds University and harboured ambitions of becoming a doctor, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Minutes after the collision, Kemp got into the Mini Cooper with his friends and drove back to Scotland. He then made his way back down to his home in Lafrowda Close, Penzance, Cornwall.
An appeal was put out for his arrest and he handed himself into the police station days later. He was transported back to Leeds where he told officers it was his friend from Scotland who was responsible.
But in addition to the backseat-passenger footage, the only fingerprints found in the Focus belonged to Kemp, while additional CCTV which caught the car being abandoned moments after the crash showed him exiting from the driver’s door.
Kemp also refused to take to the witness box to give his side of the story during the trial.