Grieving mum of Berwick teen Chelsea Gillie hits out at death crash driver's sentence

Rhys McLennan was this week sentenced to eight months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, for causing a crash which claimed the life of 17-year-old Chelsea Gillie.

The Berwick teenager was the passenger in a car being driven by McLennan – who was only a learner driver and not entitled to drive unsupervised – when he lost control on a winding country road near Alnwick and hit a tree.

McLennan, of Cheviot Lodge in Longframlington, was also given a four-month curfew, rehabilitation requirements, ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work and banned from driving for two years.

But Chelsea’s mum Mandy, 52, said McLennan deserved to be jailed for his actions, and she was shocked the judge had not given him a harsher penalty.

She said: “I wanted him to go to prison, to learn his lesson.

"I realise that no sentence can bring Chelsea back, but he has not been properly punished. I was hoping for justice, but it has not been done.”

Ms Gillie had lived in Berwick with Chelsea for 12 years before she died in October 2020. But she recently found the pain of living alone in the house she shared with her youngest daughter too much to bear, so moved out and now lives alone in a flat in Spittal.

She added: “I am broken.

"I haven’t slept properly for two years and I keep reliving when I lost her. I had to move because I couldn’t bear her [Chelsea] not being there. The memories were too painful – it was horrendous.

"It meant moving away from all my good neighbours and friends, but that was less painful than staying.”

Ms Gillie was in Newcastle Crown Court yesterday (Thursday) to see McLennan sentenced.

He had pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving, causing death by driving a vehicle while unlicensed and causing death by driving a vehicle while uninsured.

He only had a provisional licence at the time and had taken the keys to his car without his mother’s permission so the pair could drive to Morrisons in Alnwick to buy juice.

The court heard McLennan had been diagnosed with autism as a child.

Judge Robert Adams described the case as “tragic” and said McLennan's decision to drive to the supermarket was done "spontaneously", without thought for the potential consequences and was linked to defects in his thinking due to his condition.

He added: "Nothing I can say or do is likely to reduce the pain suffered by Chelsea's family. I have to follow guidelines applicable to cases of this type and impose the correct sentence."

Tony Cornberg, mitigating, said McLennan, who "loved her [Chelsea] more than anything", had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and had nightmares about what happened.

He added: "He knows that the pain he feels does not compare to the pain felt by Chelsea's family. They probably don't even like me saying her name.

"He has nightmares every night, it is the first thing he thinks about every morning."

He added McLennan constantly relives the 15 to 20 minutes he spent alone in the dark with Chelsea after the crash, before help arrived.