Watchdog probes crash complaints

Katie Roberts (second left) and Louise Jones (right) died with their friends

The parents of two teenage girls killed in a mountain road crash have lodged complaints about the way the deaths were investigated, it has emerged.

Katie Roberts, 15, and Louise Jones, 16, died with two friends in the incident near Ebbw Vale, south Wales.

The driver, 18-year-old Craig Ramshaw, was later found not guilty of causing the deaths by dangerous driving.

A police watchdog confirmed the girls' parents have made complaints over how Dyfed-Powys Police handled the case.

A spokesman for the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said the complaints claimed the parents received a lack of support from the force and suggested that some information given to the parents was flawed.

The spokesman said the IPCC was supervising an investigation being carried out by the force into the first complaint which was made by Louise's father, Terry Jones.

'Sensitive way'

He said a complaint had since been received by Katie's father, Steve Roberts, and that too had now been passed on to the force.

Mr Roberts told the South Wales Argus newspaper he was angered by the way he and his wife were first told about their daughter's death as they waited at the roadside near the crash scene on Llangynidr Moors.

Mr Roberts said: "We were treated like onlookers, not worried parents.

"We should have been taken to one side and told in a more sensitive way, they were diabolical."

A spokeswoman for Dyfed-Powys Police said: "We can confirm that we have received notification via the IPCC relating to this matter and it is currently subject to consideration.

"In view of this, it would be inappropriate to comment further at present."

Skid

The friends and Danielle Caswell, 15, and Kayleigh Parry, 16, who were all from Ebbw Vale, were being taken for a ride by Ramshaw, also from the town, just three days after he passed his driving test on 2 November, 2006. None of them were wearing a seatbelt.

Ramshaw and his front-seat passenger, a 17-year-old boy, escaped with minor injuries.

Cardiff Crown Court court heard the accident happened as he negotiated a difficult brow on the B4560 between Garnlydan and Llangynidr, causing the car to skid and then flip.

Ramshaw was cleared of causing death by dangerous driving but convicted of careless driving.

He was given a two-year driving ban.