THE TRAGIC death of a "beautiful" 13-year-old Flintshire girl in a road traffic collision was unlawful, a coroner ruled. 

Lacie Jade Roberts, of Prince of Wales Avenue, Flint, was sadly confirmed dead at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd a couple hours after the car she was a passenger in crashed on the A548 in Bagillt during the early hours of April 22, 2022.

Lacie was sat in the rear of the white BMW, being driven by her father, John Daniel Roberts, when he lost control having been driving at "significantly high speeds". The car swerved off the road, rotating 180 degrees before it careered through a boundary fence and into the outer wall of the Lyons Den gym.

Mr Roberts was also killed in the collision - in which three other passengers suffered serious injuries. 

At County Hall in Ruthin on Wednesday (July 24), an inquest was held into Lacie's death. 

It heard that the car being driven by Mr Roberts didn't belong to him. He was a mechanic and the car had been dropped off by a client, Ian Roberts. 

A statement read by the coroner on behalf of Ian Roberts said that John Roberts had, on a previous occasion, driven a vehicle belonging to him that had been dropped off for repair work. Ian had told John explicitly not to drive the car - with the police seizing the previous one, for which John Roberts was under investigation by the police for driving it without insurance and whilst disqualified. 

The inquest heard that at around 2am, John Roberts drove the white BMW containing his partner, Jennifer Vale, Lacie and her two friends. In a statement given to the police following the incident, Miss Vale said she told Mr Roberts to "not drive like an idiot". She said he "loved cars and liked driving fast". 

On the journey, Miss Vale said that the car reached speeds of 100mph, and that she shouted to Mr Roberts to slow down before the collision. The inquest heard from police statements of Lacie's two friends, who said Mr Roberts was "hammered". They said he "always liked to drive fast" and didn't care, and that before the collision he had been skipping red lights. 

On a slight right-hand curve in the road Mr Roberts lost control of the car and on CCTV footage played to the court was seen to career sideways through a wire fence, across a car park and into the wall of the Lyons Den gym.

A post-mortem examination revealed that Mr Roberts had alcohol in his system at a level of 104 micrograms in 100ml of blood - the legal driving limit being 80. He also had cocaine in his system, which was above the legal driving limit. The pathologist ruled that Lacie died of multiple injuries.

Ian Thompson, a forensic collision investigator with North Wales Police, told the inquest that the first tyre mark on the road was situated 114 metres away from where the point the car collided with the gym. Mr Thompson said he agreed with the coroner's assessment that the car was travelling at speeds "significantly" in excess of the road's 40mph speed limit.

John Gittins, senior coroner for North Wales East and Central, recorded a conclusion of unlawful killing. He said that he was satisfied that the evidence amounted to gross negligence manslaughter on the part of Mr Roberts. 

Factors needed to reach a conclusion of gross negligence manslaughter include; the existence of a duty of care owed to the deceased, a breach of that duty of care, that the risk of death was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the misconduct, the breach caused the death, and having regard to the risk of death involved, the misconduct was grossly negligent so as to be condemned as the serious crime of manslaughter.

Mr Gittins said he was satisfied that the multitude of factors; namely that Mr Roberts was under the influence of both alcohol and drugs, the fact he was disqualified from driving and driving in the manner he was, amounted to gross negligence manslaughter and therefore unlawful killing. 

In a statement read out to the coroner's court on behalf of Lacie's mum, Kieley Messham, she described her daughter as being "full of laughter", and that she "lived life to the fullest". She was "music mad" and had recently attended her first ever concert.

Miss Messham said Lacie was already thinking ahead to the future of having a family, and would have made the "most beautiful mum". She added that her daughter's life was "selfishly robbed" from her. 

Remarking on the conclusion following the inquest, Miss Messham said it was a "waste of life" in an incident that "wasn't an accident" and "could have been prevented".

Addressing people who regularly drive in the manner Mr Roberts did on the night of the incident, Miss Messham said: "It's just not worth it."