The 18-year-old was sentenced to 14 months in jail on Friday
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An 18-year-old driver who partied and went on a skiing holiday in the months after she killed two teenage passengers in a crash has been sentenced to 14 months in jail.
Harrison Carter, 18, and George Stephenson, 17, who had recently finished their A-level exams, died following a collision in the village of Marston on June 20 last year.
Madeleine Lonsdale, who had raced another car at 100mph during a trip to a petrol station to buy snacks, alcohol and vapes, partied "repeatedly" and choreographed TikToks in the months after their deaths, Lincoln Crown Court heard.
The defendant, who passed her driving test about 12 weeks before the crash, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing the teenagers’ deaths by careless or inconsiderate driving at a hearing at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court in January.
Lonsdale looked upset in the dock on Friday, while wearing a white shirt and black jacket, as the packed public gallery heard the facts of the case.
Prosecutor Steven Taylor told the court that Mr Carter and George set off as passengers in Lonsdale’s Kia Niro in the early hours of the morning to go to an Esso petrol station off the A1.
Mr Taylor said: “She took a left turn down a rural country road and … down that road for a distance, evidently accelerated to over 70mph.
“In due course she failed to negotiate a right-hand bend further along the road.”
He added: “It appears she misjudged the distance to the first bend and failed to slow down at all on her approach.”
The court heard that the car was travelling at 76mph seconds before it collided with the tree in Toll Bar Road and then landed on its side.
The unlit road was subject to a 60mph limit, Mr Taylor said, and a sign warned of the upcoming bend.
Mr Carter was in the front passenger seat while George had been sitting directly behind him in the rear of the car.
“Both tragically suffered fatal injuries in the crash and were pronounced dead at the scene,” Mr Taylor said.
The court heard Lonsdale had a relatively minor injury to her wrist.
Another car driven by a teenage friend was following Lonsdale’s vehicle but managed to avoid the collision, the prosecutor told the court.
Mr Taylor said Lonsdale and the other driver decided to “see how fast their respective vehicles could go” and “effectively raced each other” before the crash, briefly travelling at 100mph on the A1.
Sarah Carter said of her son Mr Carter, who wanted to pursue a career in law: “Harry was taken from us because Madeleine chose to speed.
“He will never be able to celebrate the amazing exam results that he achieved.”
Ms Carter said it “adds insult to injury” that Lonsdale was “partying repeatedly” and “choreographing TikToks” while she planned her son’s funeral.
Victoria Stephenson, George’s mother, told the court: “We will never see him graduate or find a job after university.
“We didn’t get to celebrate his 18th birthday with him, instead we had his funeral.”
She said that when Lonsdale went on a skiing trip, delaying her first court appearance by two weeks, it “only added to the torment”.
Defending Lonsdale, of Squires View, Long Bennington, Lincolnshire, John McNally said: “She knows that there is nothing she can say, do, to take the pain away.
“She knows it will weigh heavily on her for the rest of her life.“Her regret for what happened is deep and … her friends will remain, and are, in her thoughts.”
Lonsdale was disqualified from driving for three years.
