London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Jul 19, 2026

Learner driver who killed woman and swapped seats with boyfriend is jailed

Learner driver who killed woman and swapped seats with boyfriend is jailed

A learner driver killed a woman in a hit-and-run while ‘showing off’ to her boyfriend, who then drove the car away and helped cover her tracks.

Kennedy Lucas lost control after accidentally accelerating instead of braking and crashed into Krystal Hamilton, 20, who was walking home from the shops.

She also careened across a nearby grass verge in a complete circle and smashed into a wall, causing an estimated £11,000 of damage.

CCTV footage shows the couple swapping seats less than 10 seconds after the impact before Lucas’s boyfriend Vinny Guess drives off leaving the 24-year-old at the scene.

Lucas then tried to flag someone down, who happened to know Ms Hamilton, and told them there had been a ‘hit and run’, Northampton Crown Court heard.

She told concerned neighbours who had gathered at the scene she would be ‘back in two minutes’ and left without returning.

Within two hours police arrived at the couple’s home to ask about the damaged Volkswagen Passat in front of their house.


Northampton Crown Court jailed the couple and disqualified Lucas from driving for 18 months


But Lucas hid her car keys and told the officers she did not know anything about the accident and that ‘people park there all the time’.

During this time Krystal had been rushed to the University Hospital Coventry with a severe head injury.

The next day Lucas and Guess saw a Facebook post asking about the ‘girl at the scene who saw everything and left’ that people were ‘looking for’.

They turned themselves in that morning, 12 hours crashing into Ms Hamilton, who died 10 days later in hospital with her mother beside her.

Lucus, from Luton, Bedfordshire, admitted to causing death by careless driving and perverting the course of justice on February 6.

Yesterday she was jailed for 30 months and disqualified from driving 18 months.

Guess, from Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and was jailed for 20 months.

Lucas later told police in interview: ‘I just wanted to have a little play around. But playing around has consequences.’

Judge Rupert Mayo said: ‘It is as serious as it gets. It involves staying by the person fighting for her life and doing nothing. It was devious.

‘Rather than attending the scene and making sure that person in the road had emergency assistance and accepting the blame, she stayed at the scene and acted what was described as rather coolly.

‘She strongly implied she wasn’t responsible and it was a hit and run driver.

‘Nothing I say in the sentencing I pass can bring Krystal back. Her family rather understandably are devastated and feel Krystal has been stolen from them.

‘They are perfectly entitled to those views. The scars will take a lifetime to heal. Her life was without value – it was priceless.

‘The only reason that I can define for [Lucas] driving the car is that she wanted to show off to her partner.’

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Germany’s Economic Malaise Reopens the Sunday Shopping Debate
Singapore Considers Lower Taxes for Fund Managers as Hong Kong Intensifies Talent Contest
US Retaliates Against Iran After Two American Troops Killed in Jordan
Bank of Asia BVI Enters Court-Supervised Liquidation After Regulators Find It Insolvent
Proposed U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Pact Could Permit Limited Uranium Enrichment Under International Safeguards
Netherlands Declares Water Shortage Emergency After Drought Pushes Rivers to Historic Lows
Iran Claims It Destroyed Bahrain’s Main Artificial Intelligence Center in Missile and Drone Strike
Brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate Who Turned "Toxic Masculinity" Into a Brand Arrested in Miami as Britain Seeks Their Extradition
Reported CIA Mission Helped Clear the UAE’s Path to Advanced US AI Chips
Artificial Intelligence Capital Fuels Markets While Governments and Regulators Face Mounting Strategic Tests
China’s Moonshot’s Kimi K3 Narrows the Gap With Anthropic Through Scale, Openness and Lower Cost
Gold and Cash Seizure Puts Indonesia’s Senior Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Under Investigation
The Ledger Will Not Trust on Faith
Bank of England Warns Climate Shocks Could Trigger Sudden Asset Repricing
UK Treasury Places Microsoft, Google, AWS and Oracle Under New Financial Resilience Rules
Scottish Government Faces Pressure Over Delays in Vulnerable Group Background Checks
Crown Prosecution Service Authorises Additional Charges Against Andrew and Tristan Tate
NHS Approves At-Home Cancer Treatments for Rare Blood Disorders
Bank of England Gains Oversight of Major Cloud Providers Supporting UK Financial System
UK Government Plans Major Overhaul of English Local Councils Through New Unitary Authorities
British Steel Nationalisation Dispute Escalates as Chinese Owner Jingye Seeks Compensation
Bank of England Signals Interest Rates Will Stay High as It Warns of Financial Risks From Climate and AI
Trump Administration Pressures Banks to Restrict Financial Access for Undocumented Immigrants
Passenger Bound for Germany Refused to Sit Beside a Woman on a Plane — Then Slapped a Flight Attendant
Ukraine’s Leadership Rift Spills Into the Streets as Protesters Target Army Chief
Ukrainian Drone Barrage Kills Eight and Strikes Russian Logistics Network
Key Trends to Watch
Financial Conduct Authority Warns Cloud and Digital Risks Are Becoming a Financial Priority
Jeffrey Donaldson Appeals Sexual Abuse Conviction as Democratic Unionist Party Opens Review
Welsh Health Authorities Launch Emergency Meningitis Vaccination Programme for Students
Scottish Business Activity Falls for Third Month as Companies Face Rising Costs
Bank of England Regulators Demand Better Access to Digital Banking Services
United Kingdom Cuts Bilateral Aid to Several African Countries by Up to Ninety Per Cent
United Kingdom Introduces Tougher Deportation Rules After Rochdale Exploitation Scandal
NHS England Launches Wearable Technology Plan to Reduce Sepsis Deaths
Amazon Web Services Billing Error Sends Trillion-Dollar Invoices to British Companies
Bank of England Takes Direct Regulatory Role Over Major Global Cloud Providers
Extreme Summer Heat Drives Record Fire Risk and Rising Deaths Across Britain
United Kingdom Nationalisation of British Steel Sparks Diplomatic Dispute With China
United Kingdom Economy Shows Weak Growth Ahead of Major Autumn Budget
Andy Burnham Set to Become United Kingdom Prime Minister After Labour Leadership Victory
The Ten World Cup Finals That Defined Football History
Smartphones Are Getting More Expensive, Sales Are Collapsing, and Even Apple Admits: "Prices Will Rise"
The Monaco Bombing Has Become a Test of Ukraine’s Intelligence Accountability
Leadership Change and Strategic Rivalry Redraw the Political Map
Energy Risk, Uneven Growth and the New Geography of Global Capital
The AI Race Enters Its Infrastructure Era
Security and resilience remain long-term national priorities
Britain balances growth ambitions with public finance pressures
Regional devolution becomes a defining theme of the next Labour era
×