A DRUNK driver who mowed down and killed a teenage Rangers fan in front of his brother has today been jailed for 11 years.
Tragic Billy Lardner had just finished work in an airport restaurant and was about to be given a lift home by brother Drew when he was hit by Tyrone Franklin’s speeding car.
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Franklin, a scaffolder, had downed three pints of lager and two double whiskies and lemonades when he “flew” past Bournemouth Aiport in Dorset at “insane speed”.
Just as Billy, 16, stepped into the road to get into Drew’s parked car he was hit by Franklin’s Honda Civic which was travelling at up to 85mph in the 40mph road.
Billy was thrown 20ft through the air and was ‘shattered to pieces’. He died at the scene.
Harrowingly, his brother witnessed the collision and had to call his parents to break the devastating news.
Their mother Anna, an NHS nurse, immediately drove to the scene and was confronted by the sight of her son’s body lying in the road.
Meanwhile 25-year-old Franklin had climbed out of the driver’s window and fled the scene through a hedge. He was arrested the following day.
Billy’s father, Andrew, is originally from Denny, Falkirk.
He said his son was a big Rangers FC fan and loved music.
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He had been planning to go to the Boardmasters Festival in Cornwall in August 2023 and in his memory his friends all went in Rangers shirts with ‘Lardner’ on the back.
He said Billy also had plans to go to Germany to watch Scotland in the Euros this year.
Billy had only recently started his first part-time job at The Navigator restaurant at the Dorset airport.
A work colleague offered him a lift home after they finished their shifts on the night of June 30, 2023, but Billy declined as his brother was already on his way.
In a harrowing victim impact statement Drew, 19, described seeing his brother smile at him and look both ways to cross to his car before Franklin approached at “insane speed”.
He said Billy hurried up but was too late to get out of the way and the force of the impact removed his trousers and shoes and threw him in the air.
In his statement read by prosecutor Russell Pyne, Drew said: “As I drove up to the lights he saw me and gave me a big smile.
“Every day I have flashbacks of Billy’s lifeless body lying on the floor.
Flashbacks of blood dripping from the side of his head, of the sound the car made against his innocent body, and his body flying through the air.”
He said he was mentally scarred and he described Franklin as ‘absolute scum of the earth’.
Mrs Lardner described getting the call from her son and then rushing to the scene.
She said: “I saw a body in the road and ran towards my youngest son and was turned away by a policeman.
“No mum should see the body of her son. No one should be told by their son that their other son is dead.
“I am terrified that Drew watched his brother die. He was carrying his black jeans because his trousers were removed intact from his body in the impact.
“Drew has seen more and lost more than any 19 year old should ever have to endure.”
Mr Lardner, who served in the RAF and worked at Bournemouth Airport for 18 years, described the guilt he felt for helping to get his son at job.
He said: “I feel guilty I encouraged him to get a job. His boss feels guilty he rostered him on that day.
“I must now pass the spot Billy was taken from us at least four times a day.”
He called Franklin ‘gutless and cowardly’ and added: “Billy deserved better than being smashed to pieces and left to die.”
Franklin, a father of a one-year-old daughter and from Poole, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, failing to stop at the scene of an accident and driving without valid insurance.
In jailing Franklin Judge Susan Evans KC described it as an ‘utter tragedy’ and a ‘cruel twist’ that his brother Drew had witnessed.
She said: “It is tragic his life was so cruelly cut short when he was just 16. The devastation you have brought upon the family and friends is beyond words. No parent should have to attend the funeral of their 16-year-old son.
“There’s nothing this court can say or do that could begin to compensate for the loss of Billy, no sentence can make up for the devastation and distress caused by you.”
She said Franklin was “highly impaired by the consumption of alcohol” and his speed was “grossly” over the limit.
She said Franklin was a coward to have ran away. She added: “It was made clear you had just killed someone and yet you made off, no doubt trying to avoid responsibility.”
Franklin was also disqualified from driving for ten years, with the ban due to commence when he is released from prison.
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Detective Constable Michelle Underwood, of Dorset Police, said: “Nothing will ever make up for the unspeakable loss suffered by Billy’s family and loved ones that resulted from Tyrone Franklin’s actions on the night of June 30.
“His dangerous driving after consuming alcohol was compounded by the fact that he fled the scene in an attempt to escape justice.”
