Blood sample taken after the crash showed Farragher was excessively over the legal limits for cocaine, cannabis, ecstasy and ketamine, Newcastle Crown Court heard
A driver who killed his girlfriend in a horror head-on crash while fleeing the police on a cocktail of drugs has been jailed. Kane Farragher reached speeds of 136mph in the chase before driving on the wrong side of a dual carriageway.
The 24-year-old was jailed for 12 years and nine months at Newcastle Crown Court after he admitted causing the death by dangerous driving of Taylor Jenkins. The “beautiful” young woman was a front seat passenger when he crashed into a taxi on the A19 near Sunderland in the early hours of March 1.
A friend of the banned driver was in the back seat at the time of the crash and was left badly injured. Blood sample taken after the crash showed Farragher was excessively over the legal limits for cocaine, cannabis, ecstasy and ketamine, the court heard.
His reading for a breakdown of cocaine was around 14 times over the legal limit, 12 times over the MDMA limit, more than twice the limit for ketamine and 40% over the limit for cannabis, the court heard.
Kevin Wardlaw, prosecuting, said the BMW that Farragher was driving triggered an automatic camera notification on Tyneside that it was a vehicle of interest to Police Scotland.
Northumbria Police officers attempted to stop the car on the Felling by-pass in Gateshead but Farragher drove into a coned-off section of the carriageway and sped away to avoid being boxed in.
Reaching speeds of up to 136mph, Farragher evaded the pursuit which was called off when he headed the wrong way down the A19.
The court heard the fatal collision with a taxi happened near to a Nissan factory, around seven miles from where the pursuit had started and one mile from where he joined the A19.
Mr Wardlaw did not outline Ms Jenkins’ injuries but said she died from the impact and the rear passenger suffered skull and rib fractures but Farragher was largely unhurt, trapped in the driver’s seat by the airbag.
The defendant, who held his head in his hands for much of the sentencing which he followed on a link from prison, was disqualified from driving at the time, having been banned for four years in 2023.
In 2021, he was convicted of aggravated vehicle taking and dangerous driving after police tried to stop him and others riding stolen motorbikes dangerously.
In interview with police, Farragher denied being the driver but he was to admit causing death by dangerous driving, drug-driving offences, driving while disqualified and causing serious injury to his friend at a previous court hearing.
The court heard that Farragher grew up in a socially deprived area of Merseyside, that his mother was jailed and that he lived with his grandmother until her death.
Aged around 16, he moved to Scotland, the court heard, where he was to meet Ms Jenkins. Judge Penny Moreland said the couple travelled with friends to Newcastle for an event that night.
She told him: “You made a deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road. There was a complete disregard of the dangers to others.”
She said it was a prolonged course of action, “driving in the wrong direction, at high speed, on a dual carriageway, at night”, and that his judgment must have been impaired by drugs. Judge Moreland said: “You undertook a lengthy course of the most dangerous driving one can imagine.
“You reached speeds of up to 130mph in your efforts to get away and travelled southbound on the northbound carriageway.”
The judge jailed him for 12 years and nine months and banned him from driving for 13 and a half years, after which he must take an extended test.
In victim impact statements, family members said Ms Jenkins, who was from Edinburgh, was a keen showjumper and was loving, hard-working and had a beautiful smile.
Her father Williams Jenkins said: “Her loss is beyond anything I can bear.”
And sister Ellis Jenkins added: “The impact of losing her is something I will carry with me forever.”