TEENAGE motorcyclist Joshua Knights whose dangerous driving caused the deaths of five people on a north Derbyshire road has failed in an Appeal Court challenge to his six-and-a-half year sentence.
Knights, 18, of Chesterfield Road, Shuttlewood, near Chesterfield, was locked up in May and banned from driving for ten years after admitting causing death by dangerous driving at Derby Crown Court.
And today, after hearing his appeal, three top judges sitting at the Criminal Appeal Court in London rejected his case against the sentence.
Knights was involved in a high-speed race with a Ford Sierra in Chesterfield Road, but the contest turned into tragedy when the Sierra collided with a car carrying a young family on September 22, 2007.
Joshua Taylor (7) and his four-year-old brother, Leon, died when their mother's car collided with the Sierra near a railway bridge.
The driver of the Sierra, Kenneth Jones (25), was also killed, along with his brother Martin (22) and a friend, Andrew Darnell (21) when their car was thrown into trees beside the road.
Mr Jones had approached the railway bridge at around 100 mph in a tragic attempt to "shoot" it, causing his car to take off and crash down on the Renault Megane driven by Pam Tut, mother of the two boys.
Mrs Tut and her 13-year-old nephew, Luke Taylor, who was in the passenger seat of her car, suffered serious injuries and have been left traumatised by the events of that day.
Following the crash, Knights carefully negotiated his way through the carnage and carried on to a nearby village where he was seen performing wheelies and talked to people about what had happened.
Knights' barrister, Paul Mann QC, argued before Lord Justice Maurice Kay, Mr Justice McCombe and Mr Justice Sweeney at London's Court of Appeal that the resulting sentence was "manifestly excessive".
Although Knights had initially participated in the race, the faster vehicle had left him trailing in its wake and he was far behind when the driver attempted to "shoot" the railway bridge, causing the tragic smash, he said.
But, rejecting the appeal as having "no merit", Mr Justice Sweeney said all races had to involve two participants and that the loser had to bear responsibility, even if not physically involved in the ultimate consequences."
The judges reduced Knights' driving ban from ten to six years, after which he will have to take an extended test before getting a licence.
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