A DRINK-DRIVER who killed his best friend in a high-speed crash was yesterday locked up for six years after being branded “dangerously idiotic”

by a judge.

Christopher Howson told police he wanted to “wind-up”

the car owner and victim, Gordon Quigley, by racing through the streets of Billingham, near Stockton.

Howson – who was best man at Mr Quigley’s wedding in 2006 – had never passed his test and was not insured to drive his friend’s vehicle, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The 29-year-old music student had probably drunk seven pints and two cans of lager before the late-night crash, in Wolviston Road, Billingham, in April.

After overtaking and undertaking other cars at high speed, and driving “aggressively”, Howson lost control of the Ford Focus, hit a central reservation and overturned.

His friend – a lance corporal in the Army, based at Catterick Garrison, in North Yorkshire – was in the front seat, and died of massive head injuries.

In a victim impact statement Mr Quigley’s widow, Katie, said she cannot bear to look at their wedding photographs, which show her smiling husband and his killer.

Judge Simon Bourne- Arton, told Howson he had “utterly destroyed” the lives of Mrs Quigley and her two children, and said: “You knew you were driving dangerously.”

He added: “You set out to drive at excessive speed, dangerously, and to show off in order to wind-up Mr Quigley, and you ignored warnings to slow down.

“Obviously, no sentence I can impose upon you can do anything to relieve the grief that Mr Quigley’s widow, his family and his many friends now endure.

The two friends and another man had been drinking ahead of Lance Corporal Quigley’s six-month tour to Afghanistan.

After the crash, as passersby came to help, Howson screamed: “I’ve killed him.

I’m f***ed, here, I’m f***ed...

"What have I done? I’m so sorry.”

After giving a reading of nearly twice the legal drinkdrive limit, he told police he had been driving “like an idiot” to wind up Mr Quigley, 26.

Peter Makepeace, mitigating, said: “One could bankrupt the English language in trying to express the regret and remorse he has for his actions.

"He knows he must receive punishment for what he has done and he knows he deserves it.”

Howson, of Bosworth Way, Billingham, was banned from driving for five years after he admitted causing death by dangerous driving and excess alcohol.

Mrs Quigley said her 12- year-old son was receiving counselling and she is concerned about how her threeyear- old daughter will cope.

Lance Cpl Quigley’s parents, Jacqueline and Gordon, and his sister, Amy, released a statement that said: “Gordon was a loving father, husband and a very much-loved son, brother, grandson and nephew.

“He was loved by all who knew him."