Sentence was 'disgrace' say parents

Christian White was cleared of manslaughter at Luton Crown Court after a judge ruled prosecution evidence was not enough to allow a safe conviction.

The 30-year-old, of Cherry Tree Grove, Spalding, Lincolnshire, was driving Adam Ferguson's car when he plunged down an embankment into a ditch near St Neots, Cambridgeshire.

Rather than calling for help for his seriously injured friend he fled the scene and walked five miles to his former home in Eynesbury, Cambs.

Mr Ferguson's body was not found until the following morning by a passing motorist, by which time he had died.

A trial for manslaughter by gross negligence, which started last week, was stopped by Judge John Bevan who ordered the jury to acquit White.

He sentenced him to five-and-a-half months for other charges of driving while disqualified and driving without insurance that the 30-year-old had previously admitted. He was also fined £500 and ordered to pay £578 costs, and disqualified from driving for a further three years.

Speaking after the sentence, Adam Ferguson's distraught parents Raymond and Susan Ferguson said it was a "disgrace".

Mr Ferguson said: "Christian White has got away, in our minds, with murder. He killed our son Adam, he took his life away from him. He left him to die in a ditch at the side of the road, to die on his own.

"We don't think his sentence of five-and-a-half months is adequate. It's a disgrace that somebody should take a life away and get such a light sentence but at the moment that's the law."