PETTS WOOD: Teenage defendant takes stand in fatal crash trial (From News Shopper)

PETTS WOOD: Teenage defendant takes stand in fatal crash trial

5:53pm Wednesday 9th September 2009 in News By Robert Fisk

A TEENAGER accused of causing a fatal car crash in Petts Wood began giving evidence this afternoon (September 9).

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was travelling in a Mini Cooper when it swerved and hit a tree before crashing into a wall in Southborough Lane.

She was sitting on the lap of another passenger on the car’s front passenger seat and is accused of grabbing the steering wheel just before the collision.

The car driver, Lee Waite, died at the scene in the early hours of February 10 last year.

Mr Waite had been driving six of his friends back from a petrol station after buying cigarettes and alcohol when the crash happened.

Dressed all in black, the defendant told the Old Bailey how she had been scared of the speed the car was going.

She said: “Lee started playing music and it was very loud.

“You had to shout to talk [and] I was just sitting there and I was scared because Lee was going very fast.

“I could see the speedometer and I remember [it saying] about 50 or 60 miles per hour.”

The court heard the group had spent the evening drinking with friends at The Chequers pub before going back to one of their homes nearby.

At the pub the girls in the group had been drinking white wine and the defendant told the court she remembers Mr Waite drinking Jack Daniels and Coke and at least four lagers.

They drank more after going back to the house before their trip to the petrol station.

The court heard how her friend, who also cannot be named, fancied Mr Waite and wanted him to be her boyfriend.

Mr Waite and the friend chatted in the back of the car at the petrol station while the defendant played in the driving seat, the court heard.

The girl said: “I was just sitting there just playing with the car and I remember saying to them ‘Do I look nice in this car?’

“I remember Lee saying ‘Do not do that to my car’ and he said ‘No, I’m only joking, it’s alright'.”

The atmosphere during the evening was happy but Richard Rutter, who she met for the first time that evening, was not very friendly, the court heard.

She said: “I said ‘Hello, what’s your name?’ and he said ‘Richard’ and there was a bit of tension there.

“I did not understand why.”

The case continues.