A LEARNER driver who had already killed a friend in a drunken motorbike smash was jailed for seven years yesterday after admitting causing the death by dangerous driving of his girlfriend while showing off in his sports car.

Graeme Eden, 31, of Halesworth Drive, Sunderland, described as a ‘‘speed freak’’, was guilty of ‘‘horrific’’ driving, Judge Brian Forster said at Newcastle Crown Court.

He owned a succession of performance cars despite his high speed motorbike crash in 2002 in which his passenger died, and despite never passing his test.

After smashing his Toyota Celica GT4, which had a top speed of 150mph, into an oncoming car, one witness yelled: “What the hell were you driving like that for?”

His partner, Victoria Little, 30, died at the scene, having suffered multiple injuries.

The much-loved carer was mother of a nine-year-old daughter.

The crash happened on the A183 Chester Road, Penshaw, near Sunderland, in November, when Eden lost control and the car drifted as he accelerated violently past a roundabout.

Glen Gatland, prosecuting, said: ‘‘Eden was a learner driver driving a potent and fast motorcar showing off in adverse conditions to his long time partner and that behaviour caused her untimely death.’’ His partner’s mother, Sheila Bainbridge, had previously warned him to slow down when she accompanied him in the Celica when the learner was driving on the same stretch of road.

She said he was a speed freak and that he had driven so recklessly on that occasion that she felt sick afterwards.

Judge Forster said Eden had “learnt little” from his 2002 conviction for causing death by careless driving while under the influence of alcohol.

He was giving his friend John Hancock a lift on the back of his Yamaha 600cc machine at Eastgate, County Durham, when they both came off the machine at speed. His pillion passenger ended up in a garden and was killed after hitting a wall.

Eden had drunk ten pints of lager the night before at a biker rally and was found to be one-and-a-half times over the limit.

He was jailed for three years for that offence.

Judge Forster banned Eden from driving for ten years.

Christopher Morrison, defending, said: ‘‘He is adamant he will never take control of any motorised vehicle again.’’ He was too depressed to work having lost his partner, and his remorse was ‘‘palpable’’, his barrister said.

A statement on behalf of the dead woman’s parents said: “Graeme Eden has deprived our granddaughter Paige of her mother, and her best friend.

“Whatever sentence was handed out, it would never be enough, as it could not bring our Victoria back.”