Dangerous Livingston driver crippled best friend after losing control of car during high-speed police chase

A sheriff today described McMorrine’s behaviour as “utterly irresponsible”

A dangerous driver crippled his best friend after losing control of his car following a high-speed police chase.

James McMorrine, who was banned from driving and had no insurance, accelerated away after being stopped for speeding in a 30mph zone, a court heard.

With a marked police car in hot pursuit, he overtook other cars when it was dangerous to do so, drove at excessive speeds and accelerated past traffic waiting at a red light before the police driver lost sight of him.

He eventually skidded off the road in a narrow country lane leaving deep furrows in the verges on either side of the carriageway.

He smashed his sporty blue Audi Quattro S1 into a tree leaving it sideways across the road surrounded by wreckage.

A sheriff today described McMorrine’s behaviour as “utterly irresponsible” and jailed him for 20 months. He also banned the accused from driving for two years following his release from prison.

Prosecutor Kate Irwin said the accused’s car had suffered “substantial” frontal damage in the crash with fencing wire and a fence post tangled up in the wreckage.

James McMorrine (left) and Duncan Clark

McMorrine’s best friend Duncan Clark was badly injured with his left ankle bone completely detached from the leg bone, his right ankle smashed and a broken bone in his back.

He has since undergone a series of operations to insert metal plates into his ankles in a bid to fuse the broken bones back together.

He will also have to continue to wear a back brace until his spinal injury heals and has been left with no feeling in his left foot.

Ms Irwin told Livingston Sheriff Court that motorist Struan Melrose was first to arrive at the scene of the crash in Hartwood Road, West Calder on the morning of 7 August last year.

He found the accused standing next to the smashed car using his mobile phone.

Mr Clark was lying on the grass verge nearby. He was “quite shaky” and had a visible injury to his left foot.

She said McMorrine asked Mr Melrose to give Mr Clark a lift to St John’s hospital in Livingston, West Lothian but, after his friend had been admitted to accident emergency, the accused left.

He returned to the hospital several hours later and confessed to waiting police officers that he was responsible for the accident.

McMorrine, 24, of Alderstone Place, Livingston, appeared for sentence after earlier pleading guilty to causing serious injury and permanent impairment by dangerous driving.

He admitted driving at excessive speed, going on the wrong side of the road when it was unsafe to do so, failing to stop at a red light and repeatedly causing the car to veer off the carriageway and collide with trees and a fence.

He also pled guilty to driving while disqualified and without insurance, failing to stop for a police officer, and failing to report an accident.

Glenn Fraser, defending, said that although Mr Clark had suffered horrific injuries, he bore his childhood friend no grudge and didn’t want him to be sent to prison.

He said McMorrine had shown genuine contrition and had helped to care for his friend – who was “like a brother to him” – during his recovery.

Passing sentence, Sheriff Douglas Kinloch reminded McMorrine that he had already been fined and banned from the road after being convicted of dangerous driving two years ago.

He told the accused: “This is a case where your utter irresponsibility led to one of your close friends being seriously injured.

“If you have any morality or sense of responsibility at all, the injuries sustained by your friend will be on your conscience forever.”

He said he had given careful thought to the fact that McMorrine was relatively young and that the case was unusual in that his friend stood beside him and supported him and didn’t want him to go to prison.

He added: “It may well be that perhaps few people would show the forgiveness which your friend seems to show.

“But although I take into account his views, I also have a duty to try and protect the public from the consequences of vehicles being driven in an irresponsible manner by deterring you and others from doing so.

“For offences of this magnitude which demonstrate a complete disregard for the safety of the public and which ended up with serious injury being caused, your age and your friend’s forgiveness cannot save you from a sentence of imprisonment.”