Speeding teenager who killed newly-wed father jailed for four and a half years

Matthew Harding, aged 27, was working at the roadside in a Coseley street when he was struck by the Citroen Picasso.

The 17-year-old who was behind the wheel had ignored warnings from his mother not to take her car.

One witness told police it appeared he had 'not got a clue how to drive', Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

The driver, who cannot be named because of his age, had been distracted as he was trying to turn on the windscreen wipers in the car and then swerved to avoid a parked car, the court was told.

The vehicle careered into two Virgin Media technicians, Mr Harding and his colleague Jermaine Buchanan, at the corner of Jack Holden Avenue, Woodcross.

The youth, from Tipton, had been driving at 47mph in the residential area and had smoked cannabis the night before.

Mr Harding, a father from Oldbury, had only got married a week before he was killed on July 20 last year.

Danielle – his wife of just 10 days – had to make the 'heartbreaking' decision to turn off his life support machine.

Sentencing the driver, from Tipton, Judge James Burbidge said it was clear the teenager knew nothing about cars and had made the deliberate decision to ignore the rules with catastrophic consequences.

The judge said: "This was a flagrant disregard of all the rules of the road. You knew you had been told not to drive and you knew you were incapable of driving."

The teenager, who was 16 at the time, was also banned from driving for seven and a half years.

The youth had admitted causing death by dangerous driving and a separate charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving at a previous hearing.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Buchanan said had struggled to come to terms with the death of his friend.

Danielle Harding told police she felt she had found her 'match forever' when she met her future husband.