A SPEEDING teenager who left a young boy dying in the road after hitting him with a van was behind bars last night.

John Patrick Smith, 18, wept as a judge jailed him for two-and-a-half years for causing the death of Sean Hamilton by careless driving.

The ten-year-old victim was hit and then dragged under the rear of Smith’s Ford Transit van as he was trying to cross Holgate Road, in York, a year ago.

At the time, Smith was driving at 47mph in a 30mph zone.

After the collision, he got out of his vehicle and allegedly looked at the dying boy, before running away from the scene with a friend and a relative.

Sean was returning home after a trip to the cinema with his 12-yearold sister, Stephanie, and two friends when the accident happened.

They desperately tried to help the youngster – who was also treated at the scene by paramedics – but he was later pronounced dead at York Hospital.

The next day, Smith handed himself into police, but initially refused to accept he was driving too fast until a report into the collision concluded otherwise.

Smith, of Carlton, near Selby, 12 miles south of York, had pleaded guilty to the charge at an earlier hearing and was sentenced at York Crown Court yesterday.

Judge Stephen Ashurst told him: “You were driving far too fast. Too fast to allow young Sean to react and too fast to give yourself any chance of avoiding him.

“There was then a quite dreadful collision in which Sean was struck by your vehicle and he was dragged beneath the wheels.”

He added: “You had neither the maturity, the courage nor the decency, to check on Sean’s welfare or to face up to the devastation your careless driving had caused.”

In mitigation, barrister Taryn Turner said Smith was full of remorse for his actions and had fled the scene in panic.

She added: “He is devastated by what has happened.”

Outside court, Sean’s parents, Ronnie and Sharon, said they were relieved Smith had come forward.

“Smith did the right thing, eventually. He did the right thing and accepted his responsibilities,”

they said. “We have no wish to ruin another life, enough lives have been ruined.”