A restricted driver who was travelling at more than 100mph (161km/h) when he caused a crash which killed a man and left four women seriously injured, including one who now has to use a wheelchair, has been handed a five-year sentence.

Judge Richard Greene KC told 23-year-old Lewis Burtney, with an address on the Riverside Road in Ballynahinch, it was clear the incident was due to his "grossly excessive speed".

Burtney's sentence will be served equally between prison and licence conditions.

Forty-nine-year-old James Smyth was pronounced dead at the scene in Dundrum, County Down, in December 2021.

James Smyth's four passengers, including his daughter and three of her friends, sustained serious injuries including fractures to arms and legs, a perforated bowel and a lacerated liver.

One victim, who was in the back seat, had her spinal cord broken and she now uses a wheelchair.

Jailing Burtney and imposing a six-year driving ban, the judge at Downpatrick Crown Court emphasised that deterrence was an important feature of the sentencing process because incidents of dangerous driving "cause real and lasting harm to other road users".

On the night of the incident, James Smyth had collected his daughter and her friends from a pre-formal and as the judge put it, "like any father who would go to the ends of the earth… he just wanted to get his daughter and her friends home safely".

At an earlier hearing, Burtney admitted causing James Smyth's death and grievous bodily injury to four women by dangerous driving.

Sentenced alongside Burtney, 28-year-old Rhys Bailie, from Carrigard in Dundrum, was fined £750 and banned from driving for two years after he admitted dangerous driving.

Judge Greene outlined how it was just after midnight on 16 December, 2021, when the crash occurred on the Belfast Road in Dundrum.

The court heard that Burtney's Vauxhall Astra was supposed to have a speed limiter fitted but it had been removed, and after he negotiated a slight bend, the car spun out of control and careered into the Volkswagen being driven by James Smyth.

Bailie's Seat vehicle was about 11 seconds behind Burtney and, with his average speed just more than 90mph (145km/h), he saw the accident unfold but he had no time to take evasive action to avoid the collision.

When he was interviewed, Burtney claimed he could not have been speeding as his car had been fitted with a device to limit the car to 55mph (89km/h).

A forensic engineer reported that it would not have dislodged in the impact, and was not anywhere on the car during his examination of the vehicle.

With no explanation as to where it was, Judge Greene said the "clear inference" had to be drawn that Burtney had removed it and that he had done so because "he had formed an intention to speed".

When his phone was examined, police discovered he had researched how to remove such a device, the judge added.

Burtney had also been using his phone at some point during his journey, but not immediately before the fatal impact, and the expert report indicated that when the Astra was not in an urban area, it had an average speed of 89mph (143km/h).

Turning to victim impact statements, Judge Greene assured the family and friends in the public gallery that he had read and considered all of them.

"Even for a hardened old judge like me, it was very hard to read them without becoming emotional," he told them.

"I can only imagine how difficult it was to write them and I thank you for them."

Admitting that it would be difficult to do justice to the statement, Judge Greene told the court how James Smyth's widow and children spoke of how his death "is a heartbreak that never ends".

He said they highlighted the family occasions and life events that have been lost and will be lost - the nieces and nephews and grandchildren James Smyth will never know and how he will not get to walk his daughters down the aisle on their weddings days.

"There will be no more tickle monster to chase the children," his widow wrote.

The survivors who were seriously hurt spoke of the consequences for them and their recoveries.

The victim whose spine was injured wrote that "if she's honest, she will never come to terms with it".

Other aggravating features included that Burtney was still an inexperienced restricted driver at the time and that he had been driving at an excessive speed for a protracted period in the lead-up to the accident.

In mitigation, he had admitted his guilt and there "is some evidence of remorse", the court heard.

Judge Greene told the court, however, that Burtney's expressions of "remorse and shame... do not sit easy with his inability to account for the missing speed limiter".

Taking a starting point of seven years, the judge said applying the various factors, including the delay in the case progressing through the court, the appropriate sentence was one of five years.