A teenage driver who killed his best friend after ploughing into a wall at 70mph in a Vauxhall Corsa has been sentenced to six years behind bars. 

Inexperienced and ‘reckless’ new motorist Finley Lintott-Warrillow, then 19, killed ‘loving and kind’ Brandon Cousens, 18, when he crashed into a garden wall and sent his vehicle flying 50ft through the air in Southampton.

Lintott-Warrillow – who only passed his test three months beforehand – had been travelling through residential roads at ‘excessive’ speeds with Mr Cousens and another friend in the car.

Seconds before the crash he was clocked driving almost 90mph – and investigators have said he was travelling up to 72mph down a narrow road when the collision took place.

A court heard that after the tragic smash, Lintott-Warrillow exited his car and said, ‘Look what I have done, I have killed my friend’ as well as ‘My life is f***ed’.

CCTV footage has shown the ‘blur’ of his car speeding past a pub in Southampton at 86.95mph seconds before the fateful incident.

In a powerful victim impact statement, Mr Cousens’ grieving mother condemned Lintlott-Warrillow’s ‘thoughtless act’ and told how her ‘cautious’ son would have been ‘petrified’ by the speed being driven.

Lintott-Warrillow, now 21, was today jailed for six years and eight months after a judge said he was ‘driving at a speed more akin to a race car’.

Inexperienced and ‘reckless’ new motorist Finley Lintott-Warrillow, pictured outside Southampton Magistrates’ Court, has been jailed after killing his friend in a car crash

CCTV footage showed the ‘blur’ of his car speeding through streets in Southampton

Tributes have been paid to Brandon Cousens (pictured), 18, who was killed in the collision

Southampton Crown Court heard that on the evening of March 4 2023, Lintott-Warrillow had been watching a sporting event at Mr Cousens’ home.

Earlier that day, the defendant had been seen on CCTV footage jumping a red light while travelling through the port city’s centre.

Prosecuting, Siobhan Linsley told the court how Mr Cousens asked his friend to go and get some food at about midnight.

The teenagers travelled with other friends to a nearby takeaway where they sat and ate food for around 20 minutes, before three then got back into Lintott-Warrillow’s car and left the area.

CCTV footage showed the teenage driver travelling through the port city at speeds which were ‘noticeably faster than other cars’, the prosecutor said.

He was seen going past one pub at a speed of 86.95mph and a court heard the car was ‘a blur’ for much of the CCTV footage due to its speed.

In the early hours of the morning of March 5, neighbours living on a residential road in the Sholing area of the city described hearing ‘revving’ noises.

Moments later, they heard a ‘loud bang’ which they likened to the noise of a ‘bomb’ or ‘explosion’, the court heard.

A damaged vehicle is pictured at the scene near the fatal crash that happened in March 2023

Ms Linsley said many neighbours left their homes to see what had happened and were ‘shocked by the scene that greeted them’.

Lintott-Warrillow had travelled down the ‘narrow’ road, which has a speed limit of 30mph and is typically lined with vehicles on either side, at speeds estimated to be between 57mph and 72mph.

The teenage driver sped down the road before crashing into a wall and then into parked cars – and it was heard that upon hitting one vehicle, the Vauxhall Corsa flew into the air where it travelled for 15m to 20m.

The court heard the car ‘barrel rolled before coming to a halt’ and the mpact of the smash even caused the Corsa’s engine to fly out.

Neighbours described seeing a ‘shocked’ Lintott-Warrillow after the collision which caused fatal injuries to Mr Cousens.

He was heard making statements such as ‘Look what I have done – I have killed my friend’ and ‘My life is f***ed, my life is ruined’.

When spoken to by police at the scene, Lintott-Warrillow estimated he was travelling at about 60-65mph.

And when asked why he was going so fast, he replied: ‘Because I’m an idiot – I hate myself.’

Lintott-Warrillow ruptured his spleen during the collision and was taken to hospital before being discharged five days later.

The third passenger survived the crash but also suffered injuries.

It was heard that, at the time of the collision, Lintott-Warrillow had been driving for three months, having passed his test in December 2022.

He had a black box fitted into his car, but it was not working at the time.

Mr Cousens’ grieving mother Charlene Cousens told the court her son was a ‘cautious’ boy who would have been ‘petrified’ by the speed at which Lintott-Warrillow was travelling.

She said: ‘This is something that will haunt me for the rest of my life – knowing how scared he would have been.

‘Brandon was a kind, caring and loving child who was always laughing and smiling, living his life how he wanted to right up to the moment he took his last breath.

‘We have to continue living and adapting to a new normal without him, knowing that due to a reckless decision that night Brandon was killed.’

Ms Cousens told Lintott-Warrillow: ‘Not only did you kill Brandon that night, you also destroyed the lives of so many others including your own.

‘You have robbed us of a life with him due to a decision you made to drive at the speed you did.’

The court heard of another statement from his family, in which they told Lintott-Warrillow: ‘Whatever your consequence will be, it will only be a speck of dust compared to the mountain of suffering you have caused us all.’

Rebecca Upton, mitigating, told the court that Lintott-Warrillow had expressed ‘genuine remorse’.

She said Mr Cousens was a ‘close friend’ of Lintott-Warrillow, as she described the defendant as a ‘young man who lacked maturity’.

Ms Upton referred to a letter from Lintott-Warrillow, in which he spoke of his ‘best friend’, who he met in secondary school.

She added: ‘He described them as being joined at the hip. He said that Brandon was “an inspiration to me and he made me feel special”.’

Lintott-Warrillow previously pleaded guilty to one charge of causing death by dangerous driving.

Sentencing him, Judge Nigel Peters KC told Lintott-Warrillow: ‘Your driving in the early hours of the 5th of March 2023 was very dangerous.

‘Very dangerous because you travelled at such excessive speeds, such excessive speeds for the condition of the road that you were travelling. You were driving at a speed more akin to a race car.’

The judge described the ‘mayhem’ caused by Lintott-Warrillow, adding: ‘It was so dramatic that the engine fell out.

‘There was nothing wrong with the car – the only thing wrong of course was you and your aggressive and dangerous speed.

‘You made a deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road.’

The judge sentenced him to six years and eight months in prison, while Lintott-Warrillow has also been disqualified from driving for eight years and four months.