‘Show off’ Mansfield motorist Kieran Rimmer deserved ‘very severe’ sentence for causing horror road smash at Spion Kop

Kieran Michael Rimmer was caged for 33 months at Nottingham Crown in October last year after he admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

The 25-year-old, of Albert Road, Mansfield, was also banned from the road for five years.

Rimmer was driving a Volkswagen Golf which span off the road in Spion Kop in June 2013.

The accident resulted in ‘catastrophic consequences for all concerned’, Lord Justice Davis told London’s Appeal Court on Wednesday.

MORE ON THIS STORY: Woman cut free after Spion Kop crash

Rimmer’s 19-year-old passenger, Nikita Tideswell, who he was driving home from a party, suffered multiple injuries after she was ‘impaled’ by a fence post.

Rescue workers had to cut her free from the wreckage of the ‘utterly demolished’ car. She was left with severe pelvic and abdominal wounds which have blighted her young life.

Rimmer himself sustained savage leg wounds, resulting in the amputation of his left limb below the knee.

Eyewitnesses described the car hurtling through the villages near Spion Kop in the minutes before the crash, the court heard.

Rimmer drove at speeds of over 60 mph ‘over an extended period’, the judge added.

Neither Rimmer nor Ms Tideswell had any memory of the accident or its prelude.

But Lord Justice Davis said the ‘only reasonable explanation for his driving was that he must have been showing off’.

The car came to grief as Rimmer tried to negotiate a treacherous bend, losing control as the car span across the road into a hedge.

Most of the damage and physical devastation was caused by fence posts ripping through the vehicle as it slewed across the road.

Rimmer challenged his sentence with claims that it was far too tough.

Lord Justice Davis, sitting with Mr Justice Stewart and Mr Justice Lewis, noted Rimmer’s remorse and acceptance of full responsibility for his crime.

Rimmer described what happened as ‘five minutes of madness’ on his part. There was no suggestion that he was the worse for drink.

Lord Justice Davis accepted that it was a ‘severe, perhaps very severe, sentence’.

“But it is not to be styled excessive,” he concluded, dismissing Rimmer’s appeal.