THE FAMILY of a teenage girl who was killed in a car crash branded the driver's sentence an "absolute disgrace" after he was spared a jail term.

Esther Walters died after Richard Hadler lost control of his car while speeding in the New Forest and the Vauxhall Corsa hit a grass verge and overturned.

Hadler admitted death by careless driving and after he was handed a suspended sentence, a member of the girl's family at Southampton Crown Court shouted ‘absolute disgrace’.

Outside the court her uncle Dan Walters told how the 17-year-old's mum Yvonne had endured her first Mother’s Day without her beloved daughter.

“We are all disgusted with the sentence,” he said.

“He’s walked away after destroying my family’s lives.

“And he will do things that Esther will never do now.”

Hadler was giving the former Burgate School pupil a lift home with their other workmate Daniel Parker from the Sandy Balls holiday park near Fordingbridge when he crashed.

Esther, from Fordingbridge, was sat in the back of the car and died from head trauma and a fractured neck following the crash at around 11pm on June 9 last year.

Hadler, 19, of Whitsbury Road, Fordingbridge, was also treated at hospital.

He claimed an owl had distracted him and caused him to cross onto the other side of the road before he accidentally hit the accelerator as he tried to correct it.

Alexander Stein, in mitigation, said Hadler was “genuinely remorseful” and does not want to drive again.

Deputy circuit judge Patrick Hooton gave Hadler a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

Hadler was ordered to carry out 200 hours' unpaid work and was given a supervision order as well as a five-year driving ban.