Yahoo News When I walked into the morgue, my son was unrecognisable, I can't believe what happened to his killer
Ben Rogers' would wile away the evenings at his favourite place, regularly lighting a fire with friends in a little alcove at Swansea beach.
But when Ben sadly lost his life in May 2022 at the hands of speeding driver Owain Hammett-George, his family didn't think have to think where they'd most like to mark their loved one's memory, reports WalesOnline.
"He absolutely loved it at the beach ever since he was a child," Ben's mother Carla King recalled from Ben's memorial bench opposite Swansea Rugby Club.
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"He started going with his friends and they'd often be here all day. A lovely place to grow up. He loved swimming and surfing as well. It's a secluded spot so they'd never get many people passing, just a nice space to themselves. He loved his life. He was a funny character. A really loving and loveable person who'd do anything for anyone."
"You often only find out after someone has died what an impact they had on people's lives, and that was the case with Ben. I still get so many people telling me all sorts about how he stopped his life to spend time with them. 'He was there for me when my parents kicked me out,' one person told me. 'He spent so much time chatting to me after I'd argued with my girlfriend,' someone else said. It's the little things people remember, they're so important and remind me of the person Ben was. I try to remember that in the very difficult moments."
There have been too many of those moments recently for Ben's family. Hammett-George, then 17 and now 19, was sentenced to six years in prison last week after he killed Ben and Kaitlyn Davies, 19, and caused serious injuries to then 17 and now 19-year-old Casey Thomas leaving her in intensive care for nearly a month. He crashed his car at Bishopston, Swansea, on the way to the Gower shortly after 11pm on May 31, 2022, while driving his brand new 21-grand Alfa Romeo at at least 70mph in the 30mph zone while "showing off", Swansea Crown Court heard. He'd picked Ben up from his flat in Swansea before getting Casey and Kaitlyn and heading to McDonald's before driving to Gower.
Hammett-George had previously pleaded not guilty to charges brought against him but in February he changed his plea and admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and one count of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. Prosecution barrister Ian Wright KC told the court the fatal crash happened due to the "grossly excessive speeds" being driven by Hammett-George.
He lost control of the car and hit a grass bank causing the vehicle to flip into the air and rotate before colliding with a concrete pillar. An investigation into the crash discovered that Hammett-George was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision but had placed the belt into its lock and sat on it in order to stop the car's warning sound and light being activated. All three passengers were thrown from the car and officers for South Wales Police called the aftermath the "worst collision damage they'd ever witnessed".
"The last few weeks in particular have been so painful," Carla described of having to relive what happened to Ben. "We had been preparing to go to trial but in February, on quite a normal day, I was at work and then we had a call from the lawyers saying he was changing his plea and it was going to sentence. I left work and rushed to court and life has been a frantic whirlwind ever since."
"I've been off work. It sent me into shock, similar to after Ben died. In the days since the sentencing I've hardly left my bed. I find it so difficult. I'm just about managing to feed my daughter and keep going. I'm having support for PTSD."
"Grief is a peculiar thing. It hits you again and again and makes everything - even the most simple things - hard. Especially big events like Christmas, birthdays, even Easter. I hadn't properly experienced grief as an adult. I lost my grandparents young. I've gone from no experience of it for such a long time to the worst grief imaginable."
"You get through things and then think afterwards: 'How on earth did I manage that?' I think it's the shock sometimes. When we had to go to the morgue the day after the crash, I still think back and wonder how I put one foot in front of the other."
At her home in Birchgrove Carla recalled a knock on the door at around 3.20am, hours after the crash - "every parent's worst nightmare". "I saw it was the police and then it's the most horrific indescribable feeling. They kept telling me Ben had been involved in a collision and it was fatal. I asked them how Ben was again and again because it wasn't computing. It's not something you can describe. I can't even work out how I got dressed. The next day we went to the morgue to identify Ben."
"I've been back to the scene twice. The first time was a few days later on the Friday. The grass was still burnt where the engine had been. There were still marks on the road. I decided I wanted to go back there. I suppose it's a little bit of needing to reflect on his last moments almost, even though it was incredibly hard."
Ben's sister Ashleigh Rogers recalled the scene "like a film set and something which you wouldn't think real". "I went down there at about 5am. It hadn't hit me until I saw it, and even then it didn't really," Ashleigh said. "It was only being there and seeing where the engine was and piecing it together we began to realise how horrendous it was."
In her statement which she read out in court while looking at Hammett-George and his parents, Carla described her son as "unrecognisable" the last time she saw him. "I wanted to make sure I looked at his parents just as much as I did him," she said.
Throughout court proceedings it emerged how Hammett-George had exchanged text messages with his relatives who were worried about his speeding. The texts threatened taking his car from him. But Hammett-George had been given the expensive fast car and had been "overindulged" by his parents despite being "immature", Judge Geraint Walters said. Looking at Hammett-George in the dock, he said: "You drove at grossly excessive speeds to the point you lost control of the vehicle and immediately effectively extinguished the lives of two of those in the car. I have no shadow of a doubt you purposefully took the decision to exceed the speed limit. It wasn't inexperience that caused you to speed, it was your disregard."
Days after passing his test in February 2022 the court heard how Hammett-George received a speeding fine. On that occasion his father, Dewi George, covered up for him, pretending he was driving the vehicle. He later admitted to perverting the course of justice by taking his son's points and was jailed for four months in July 2023.
"I'm angry about what led to what happened," Carla explained. "If you feel your child shouldn't have a car or a car like that then you need to act. What we saw in evidence were empty threats. 'That's it, you're having a black box', 'I hope you have another speeding fine', they were all empty threats. There were countless text messages back and forth about his speed and yet ultimately it wasn't taken seriously enough and it cost two young people their lives."
The victims' families have appealed Hammett-George's sentence of six years in a youth detention unit with an eight-year driving ban. Had Hammett-George been an adult at the time of the offence Judge Walters told him he would have sentenced him to the maximum term of 14 years. If the offence had been committed a month later, due to a change in the law around maximum sentences for causing death by dangerous driving from June 2022, Judge Walters could have sentenced Hammett-George to a life sentence had he been an adult.
"There was a discount for his age, then a discount for his guilty plea, but we never thought for a minute he'd get below 10 years," Ashleigh said. "What does the length of the sentence say? Would a young man reading the news articles be put off speeding? There's no justice in it at all."
According to statistics from the RAC male drivers aged between 17 to 24 are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured in a road traffic collision than drivers aged 25 or over. Another part of the national research found 60% of all serious or fatal collisions involving young male drivers happen on rural roads.
Carla said her family will now campaign for motoring and education changes in Ben's memory. Among the changes they want to see are a gradual licence where a new driver can't carry more than one passenger under 25 for the first 12 months, mandatory black boxes for new drivers for two years after passing their test, and a speed awareness course to sit alongside the theory test.
"I did the speed awareness course a few years ago and I know they say some really striking things on those courses about the difference in speed," Carla said. "It seems strange you only hear those things after speeding. If there was a day course which included the theory test as well which offered much more education on those differences between 30mph, 40mph or 50mph, why wouldn't that happen? It's information everyone should know about before they've got in a car to drive it on their own. Have videos showing these young boys driving too fast and showing the deaths and the pain it can cause. Show people like Ben and tell Ben's story."
Ashleigh hopes their story can remind parents of young drivers, and particularly young male drivers, to think carefully about how they treat their children. "We were aware there had been some concerns over his driving and his speed but we were in utter disbelief that it was known so blatantly to his family as much as it was," she said. "After it emerged how recklessly he'd been driving and how it was being ignored, it was just sickening. Taking the points for your child might seem harmless and like you're doing them a favour but it didn't do anyone any favours in the end did it?"
Kaitlyn's mother, Kimberley Davies, said: "She was an amazing human being with a wonderful sense of humour. She was very kind, caring, and loving. Every day is a constant struggle. Life is so hard not having her by my side. She would light up every room she entered. I cannot even go into her bedroom without crying. The pain is indescribable."
Casey is now recovering slowly from the crash. Her mother Sam Cole said Casey and her family "feel terribly let down" by the length of Hammett-George's sentence. "They told me she'd not make it," Sam said, recalling speaking to doctors in the intensive care unit at University Hospital Wales in Cardiff where Casey was taken by ambulance after the crash. "She's a miracle. And yet it's strange because I can't help feeling a weird sense of guilt when I think of Ben and Kaitlyn and their families. They are so strong and we've become close since the crash."
"Casey still hasn't recovered. Her memory is terrible. She constantly repeats herself. She's managed to get back to work three days a week but she comes home shattered. She can't remember anything of what happened. She kept asking: 'Did we crash?' She thought I'd crashed the car. In fact, the last thing she remembers was two weeks before the crash when she went out for a birthday. It's not just the injuries but she's lost two people who were very close to her. It's devastating."
"I still don't understand how the sentence was arrived at to be honest. How could it be so short? It's unbelievable after all the families have been through."
On Ben's bench is the slogan "Be More Ben", which his family and friends have taken on to highlight the person Ben was. "One of his friends said it and it stuck," Carla recalled. "I really liked it. To me it means: 'Try and be more Ben because Ben never judged anyone.' I still ask myself in many situations: 'What would Ben do?' I try and reflect on decisions we make with that thought in my mind now."
What would Ben want now? "He'd want me to carry on fighting for him. I can't let his name be in vain. Those figures on young male drivers have been the same for decades and yet so little has been done. Yes there is now extended sentencing, but what about prevention? If we can put that effort in now to save just a few lives in Ben's name, then that's something isn't it?"
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